Born Quarian
by Mags360
Summary: Shepard is thrown into a wormhole with his crew transporting him to a parallel universe where he is reborn as a Quarian. John'Shepard nar Rayya grows up alongside Tali. He will have to face the challenges of Life, Love, and the Mass Effect Universe.
1. Foreword

**Born Quarian Foreword  
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><p>I have decided to replace the horrible First Chapter with something a little more on task. If you do not know already Born Quarian is going to mainly be about John'Shepard nar Rayya (eventually vas Normandy) and his adventures and struggles throughout the Mass Effect Universe. The reason I started writing was, not too long ago I saw my first fanfic, and I became interested at being able to form a whole story with a press of a button, or a key in this matter. It inspired me to go on and try my hand at writing and I met a couple of new friends along the way.<p>

**A few friends:  
><strong>

They have helped me out with my research as well as giving my ideas for chapters. I am open to any ideas. And I expect this list to grow before I am done with this story.

**BLACKWOLF36**(Now my partner)  
><strong>Potnoodle11<strong>(he has given me multiple ideas throughout the story)

Both of them are very helpful in many ways, you can say they give me the laces for my shoe and I lace them up. If that makes any sense at all. I am expecting this to be quite a long story for it will be ME1-ME3 conversations will change, missions will change, lives in the story will change. I hope you find my story entertaining even if you are laughing at my stupidity or enjoying the story either one will be great. Without further a due we shall progress onto the Mass Effect Universe.


	2. Into the Wormhole

**I just wanted to note some changes I will be doing to Shepard and the Game when he goes through the wormhole.**

**Name: John'Shepard nar Rayya eventually vas Normandy.**

**Age: I wanted Shepard to be born around Tali's age maybe a year older or so. I wanted them to develop a very close relationship as kids maybe becoming something more.**

**Weapons: No swords for Shepard, For him mainly an Assault Rifles and Pistols. May include a knife on his boot somewhat like Tali.**

**Family: It will appear that his Mother died giving birth to him in the sterile room(Shala'Raan will be somewhat a mother substitute), his Dad will appear to be very famous on the ship for a mission he sacrificed his life on to save his squad.**

**Class: I'm thinking a Biotic, Engineer sort of thing. Yeah I know what you are thinking, BIOTIC QUARIAN HOW? But it will all come in at due time. The Engineer part almost all Quarians are trained to be good engineers right?**

**Alliance: He won't necessarily be joining the Alliance, more like working for them.**

**Tali unmasked: I will not be doing the ME3 version of Tali. I will go with my imagination on how Tali appears to me.**

**Romance: It will include M rated romance.**

**Squad Members: May include new squad members like Kal'Reegar, all the originals will be there as well Zaeed and Kasumi.**

**Missions: They will be written with more than 3 members, but they will have squads like the final mission in ME2. There may be 3 at some times.**

**Shepard's personality: He will be half and half. Pretty bad but not entirely a Jerk. I'll give you a short chapter to start it off, the next one will be longer.**

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><p>Chapter 2: Into the Wormhole<p>

Commander Shepard was sitting on his soft bed, his head reeling with the events of the Omega 4 Relay.

He managed to save his crew from getting mutilated and turned into food for the Human Reaper like thousands of other humans had.

He realized that he would not accomplish any work sitting around, he rolled softly off of his bed and onto the ground.

He made his way to check his messages in his routine way.

Commander Shepard,

We have received reports from one of our ships, the SSV Achomawi that it appears some type of Wormhole has opened up in the Hourglass Nebula. We have sent some of our top scientists to investigate the Wormhole, none of the have reported back yet. We want you and your crew to investigate this Wormhole and report back to us as soon as possible.

Admiral Hackett,

Alliance Navy.

Shepard sighed softly, not a week out of defeating the unamountable odds of surviving the Collectors and the Alliance had already contacted him for work.

He pushed down the button on his desk to contact the bridge. "Joker, we need to get to the Hourglass Nebula A.S.A.P. I'll explain the rest later."

"Aye, Aye, sir. The Collectors were no problem, so I guess we can face anything in the Hourglass nebula."

Shepard stood from his chair and made his way out of his cabin to the elevator. After a short wait elevator arrived at CIC and he stepped out and walked towards Kelly.

She looked up from her console at the Shepard. "Commander, Tali would like to see you."

He nodded. "Alright, Thank you Kelly. "

He smiled, remembering back to the night before the trip to the Omega 4 relay. His only comfort before the suicide mission.

He moved into the elevator, his nerves slightly up, either from the Wormhole or Tali.

The elevator came to a stop on the Engineering Deck. He moved out of the elevator with some spring in his feet.

He watched Tali from a distance, her fingers at work on the console before her. He snuck up behind her and wrapped his muscular arms around her waist making her jump slightly.

"Hey." He whispered into her ear.

She relaxed back into his arms. "Bosh'tet…you scared me."

"You wanted to talk to me?" He ran his arms slightly up her sides, making her shudder.

"Ye-..Yes I do. Cleaning up in the Engine room has been hell…but I received a message from the Admiralty Board…I might need to return to the Flotilla…I just…wanted to check with you."

"To hell with the Admiralty board." He whispered into her ear. "If you have to go, I'll go with you. After saving the galaxy twice, I do need kind of a break."

"Th-Thank you…John." She turned to face him and gave him a big hug.

"I can't talk much longer. I have to tell Joker about our change of course." He softly kissed Tali on the top of her visor. "I'll see you later."

Shepard made his way back to the elevator, his mind now focused on the Wormhole they were going to encounter.

It was now Tali's turn to scare him. She snuck behind him and laced her arm between one of his. "I want to see come with you and see the…Wormhole."

He raised his eyebrow. "How do you know about it?"

She looked at the floor, shyly. "Miranda taught me how to look into your personal messages…"

"Not even a year into our relationship and you're already being overly protective." John replied jokingly.

She lightly pushed him on his chest.

Shepard told Joker about the wormhole. He could tell Joker didn't believe it entirely.

"Why are they sending us to investigate. Why not a Marine Team or something. Jeez, we can never get a break around here."

They stood behind Joker as he made his way into the Hourglass Nebula, leading to the wormhole. Garrus joined them after coming up to the bridge to talk to John.

"Is that it?" Garrus questioned from beside John.

"I think so.." Tali said from the other side of John.

A massive hole of different colors was infront of them. It was beautiful, but dangerous.

"What the-" Joker's fingers swirled around on the controls infront of him. "We're getting pulled towards it. I guess that's where the other ship went."

Now they were being quickly pulled towards the wormhole

"Joker get us out of here!" Shepard yelled.

"I can't-"

Those were the last words Shepard heard before they plunged into the swirling colors. The Normandy disappeared and everything was turning white.

Tali's hand started to fade from his hand. He grabbed at her hand, but only grabbed air.

"Tali! Joker! Garrus!"

A white light grew bright and ingulfed him and the Normandy.


	3. Renewal

In this chapter I will be doing Shepard's birth as John'Shepard nar Rayya, His life on the Flotilla, Friendship with Tali, How he left the Flotilla and his background. There will be a lot of year skipping when he is in the Migrant Fleet. And another reminder His mom dies giving birth to him and his dad died a hero on a mission, so there will be quotes as "Your father would be proud" etc. Shepard will have no memory of his previous actions the wormhole caused him to be "reborn" as we might say. And his suit, it is basically a black and blue version of Kal'Reegar's with more quality. Without further a due Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Renewal **

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><p>Shala'Raan vas Tonbay was next to Ishara'Shepard vas Usela holding her hand as she was giving birth to her son John'Shepard nar Rayya. Shala looked around the white walls of the sterile room and the lone gurney in the middle of the room with doctors all around and where her long time friend Ishara lay on. Ishara gripped her hand tighter and let out a grunt of pain and said "They never told me of the pain." she said in a strained voice<p>

"It is okay Ishara, I'm here for you." she said as she patted her hand "Its okay." Shala looked back to the glass wall where the rest of Ishara's family and friends sat watching not being permitted to come in. Shala remembered why Ishara wanted to call her son John a human name. She always told Shala about a human male named John on Illium that helped her pay off the rest of her Pilgrimage and asked for nothing in return. She smiled at the thought because most Aliens treated them as _tasi_ on their Pilgrimage. Ishara let out a louder grunt of pain and she gripped Shala's hand tighter. Shala hated to see one of her longest and best friends in so much pain. 'But it would all be worth it in the end she' thought

"Admiral Raan her life signs are dropping!" Her stomach dropped and she said to Ishara "One last push, come on one last push!" Ishara grunted and pushed with all of her might and smiled as she heard the faint cry of a child and saw her own child in the doctor's hand her child, her baby.

"Admiral Raan her life signs are almost gone." Ishara grabbed Shala's hand tighter and said "Thank you, take care of h-." and her sight became dimmer and dimmer and Shala's face slowly faded away.

Shala cried softly as the Quarian Doctor announced she had no more pulse. Shala cradled Ishara's head in her arms the rest of Ishara's friends and family walked in and saw Shala cradling her head crying and the Quarian doctor walked to them and said "She passed away giving birth to John." Ishara's mother nearly collapsed on the spot only being held up by some of Ishara's friends they all joined Shala and mourned for their lost friend and family member. Shala walked over to the newborn child already put in his "bubble". She looked into his shining eyes and knew this child was going to be special. For his parents were special, His mother one of best engineers she knew. His father a warrior who went down fighting to save the life of his squad. She snapped back into reality and looked at the child. She noticed a blue energy coming from him she opened her mouth wide as she noticed what he was. She wondered how this was possible as biotics for Quarians were very rare. She kept this a secret so no one would destroy his biotic potential.

She turned and noticed Admiral Rael'Zorah come in, he was a long time friend with the family and also expecting a female Quarian pretty soon, he turned and looked to the gurney Ishara was laying on and looked away abruptly figuring out what had happened to her. She walked over to Shala and said "Another meeting with the Turian Primarch. He seems pretty angry we are this close to their borders. At least he did say he would be providing medical supplies to the life ships. You should have seen Zaal'Koris he practically wet his suit at the news." He looked down to the newborn Quarian and said "So this is the boy? Hope he will be as talented as his parents."

Shala smiled for the first time in along time "He will be Rael, that I am sure of."

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><p><strong>15 Years after the birth of John'Shepard nar Rayya <strong>

15 Year old John'Shepard nar Rayya lay on his hard cot with with his hands behind his helmet avoiding the circuitry wires. The century's old quilt of the Shepard clan hung above his head and many other quilts all around elaborate with many colors blocking the sound of the other rooms. His suit looked like any other suit except that it was hand crafted by John himself . A blue visor with a black hood and with Khelish symbols carved into the side of his helmet. The rest of his suit was Black and had tough blue leather running parallel from his side to his chest. His omni tool beeped as he recieved a message. He looked down to see who it was from, his heart jumped as he found it was from his _secret crush _Tali. Tali was only born a week after him and on the same day. He read the message

'John I have good news to tell you but it will have to wait for after Advanced Engineering and Suit Renovation. After our classes meet me in the spare engineering room, Tali'. John remembered how many times they had taken refuge in the spare engineering room, for no one ever came in there and they were always alone to talk to each other. He sat up from his bed and moved across the room in 2 strides and opened the door. He headed to Advanced Engineering, and of course Him and Tali were the top students in that class.

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><p>Tali's heart jumped as she recieved news that John'Shepard and Her were going to do a ship pickup they have been wanting to do for some time now finally permitted by Admiral Zaal'Koris they were only going to pick up a frigate from an unknown seller. Zaal'Koris said that if they needed any help 3 Quarian Marine teams would be on standby, waiting for their word. She pulled out her omni tool and sent her <em>secret crush <em>a message about the good news but did not tell him the full story wanting to surprise him when they get to the spare engineering room. She stood up, walked across her room and opened the door heading towards one of her and John's favorite classes Advanced Engineering.

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><p><strong>Cerberus Headquarters<strong>

The Illusive man took a drag on his cigarette and asked "Is the Frigate set up near the Quarians?" He blew the smoke out

His top scientist replied "Yes Sir, we also have information on who will be picking the ship up, it seems to be two Quarians Tali'Zorah nar Rayya daughter of an admiral and John'Shepard nar Rayya. Our information sources tell us that John'Shepard nar Rayya is a Quarian Biotic. He will be perfect for testing since our other testing facility was practically destroyed by Subject Zero. He might have better results than Human slaves. And we will not have to pay the Batarians a credit, at most we will be getting money, from the Quarians of course."

TIM took a drag on his cigarette and said "Good the other quarian is expendable bring Shepard in alive at all costs."

"Yes sir, Do you want me to tell the strike team aboard to ready themselves?"

"Yes."

He swiveled his leather chair back around and watched the dying sun he smiled to himself for soon he would have a new test subject. He picked up his glass of his preferred Scotch Malt Whiskey and took a sip. Losing himself in his thoughts.

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><p><strong>Migrant Fleet<strong>

John finished his classes and started to head to the spare engineering room he reached the room and opened the door to find Tali sitting on one of the desks reading a holopad. She put the holopad down and rushed towards John and said "You would never guess what we are being allowed to do!" Excitement in her voice.

"What are we going to do?" John asked

"Something you and me have been wanting to do for a long time!" Tali answered

"What pickup a ship?" He said sarcastically

"That is exactly what we are going to do!" She said

"WHAT? Keelah were going to pick up a ship?"

"Yes!"

"From who?"

"Unknown seller." she said

"When" He asked

"Tomorrow first thing in the morning!"

John grabbed her and threw her into a tight hug lifting her off the ground and setting her back down still in the tight embrace. John moved forward and touched his visor to her's in the equivalent of a Quarian kiss. Tali blushed from behind her mask. They pulled away from each other "Keelah... John. I need to deliver good news to you more often!" Moving forward taking his 3 fingered hand in hers and touching her visor to his for a second time. Behind his visor John was grinning ear to ear as was Tali. They stayed in the engineering room for a couple more hours enjoying each others company. When Tali finally said "We better get some sleep before we pick the ship up."

John walked back to his cot bouncing on his 3 toed feet grinning ear to ear. He lay on his cot thinking about what just happened to him before he finally closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.

He woke up and jumped off the cot and ran to the door before he could open it it moved open and revealed his Guardian Shala'Raan.

"Where do you think you are going..." her voice hardened he stopped dead in his tracks "without a hug from Auntie Raan." her voice lightened up

He jumped forward and hugged his Guardian

"Now you listen here you are 16 years old..."

"15 I will be 16 in a few weeks, Auntie"

"You are 15 years old..." She corrected herself "This will be your first ship transaction stay in radio contact on our private channel and if the buyer asks you to get in his ship with him walk away from him..." she smiled behind her visor "or show him your new shotgun."

She pulled a long package from behind her and gave it to John

He tore it open and saw that it was a M-300 Claymore.. only slightly used

"Keelah, Auntie that is a M-300 Claymore how much did you have to pay for it?" he hugged her again

"I didn't have to pay anything for it, it was your father's."

"Thank you, Auntie!" He said as he ran down the hallway

"REMEMBER THE PART ABOUT THE SHIP!" She yelled after him as he ran down the hall to Tali's family room.

Shala touched her hand to her visor and thought 'Keelah they grow up so fast'.

John ran into Tali halfway down the hallway "Hey, I was just about to get you."

"I was just about to get you." he said to her

"Admiral Koris said that we need to head to docking area A-4B and a shuttle will arrive for us." Tali said

"Tali look at this." he showed her his M-300 Claymore

"Keelah that thing looks amazing."

They arrived at docking area A-4B a few Marines greeted them on the way they reached the end of the hall and a Quarian Marine walked up to them "I am Lieutenant Assur'Varel vas Marduk. I will be leading the rescue squad if anything goes wrong. Here two assault rifles for both of you just in case you need to defend yourself."

John showed him the Shotgun and he chuckled "Trust me kid, this will come in very handy in case you run out of ammo for your shotgun there."

They continued to walk forward and boarded the shuttle with one pilot they sat silently next to each other John reached out with his 3 fingered hand and grabbed Tali's hand, the journey lasted for about 4 minutes and they finally reached the ship they docked with the docking tube. The pilot looked back at them and saw them holding hands and smiled to himself "Good luck in there." he said.

They exited the shuttle and walked through the docking tube still hand in hand. A voice rained out from both of their comms inside their helmets "John, Tali this is- we will be- you thr- t- tran- tion."

Tali spoke back through the comm channel " You are breaking up we cannot hear you..."

"John somethings wrong, comms are blocked. Keelah what do you think is happening?" Tali moved a little closer to John.

"I don't know, Tali"

They moved further into the ship hearing a few noises but concluding it to be the ship's old age. They moved to the bridge and saw a man.

Little did John and Tali know that the man was a Cerberus operative and they were being trained on by a sniper's scope 4 Men hiding behind desks on one side of the room and 4 other men hiding on the other side.

The man called to them "I have come for the transaction."

"As have we." John called back

"Are you two John'Shepard nar Rayya and Tali'Zorah nar Rayya?"

"Yes." Then it hit John how did he know their names the comms being down. It was a trap!

The man raised his hand and closed his hand into a fist.

John dived into Tali as a Sniper shot rang out through the bridge as a Bullet went straight to where Tali's head was before John pushed her out of the way. John grabbed her up and threw her over his shoulder and ran back to the hallway that let to the docking tube.

"GET SHEPARD!" The Cerberus man called out

John used his biotics to pick up a heavy box and set it in front of the door. He set Tali down he heard Cerberus start to break through.

"Tali get to the docking tube!" he motioned to the locked door at the end of the hallway.

"What about you?" she said

"I will hold them off long enough for you to hack through the door get to the shuttle and warn the Admirals!"

"Don't throw your life away for this John!"

"Its the only chance we have Tali!"

She reached into her suit pocket and pulled out a photo of John and her when they were just put into their Environment suits they had the ceremony together.

She handed the photo to John

He took his shotgun out from around his back and handed the shotgun to Tali "Something to remember me by if I..." she took it

"No you will not die! I will get the admirals and we will pull you out of here and we will be laughing about this aboard the Rayya." But she knew in her mind this might be the last time she ever saw her best friend... her lover. She grabbed him and put her visor to his. He looked into her eyes and then pulled away.

"GO TALI!" he said as he pulled out his assault rifle

She ran down the hall as fast as she could and started hacking the door.

Cerberus managed to break through and John opened fire hitting 3 Cerberus troops with one burst they fell to the floor. He looked back to Tali and saw her get the door open and manage to get her way through she yelled back at him.

"JOHN RUN YOU CAN MAKE IT!" he ran as fast and hard as he could towards Tali and the opened door right as he reached the door it closed shut. Tali had lost control of the door. "TALI! GET TO THE SHUTTLE" He yelled through the closed door

"But I can get it open for you! She yelled back through

"No, Tali go we don't have enough time hurry!"

"Ok." He could hear the tears in her voice it pained her to say this. She ran back to the shuttle tears streaming down her eyes

John looked back to the approaching Cerberus troopers and shot back at them hitting 2 in the chest causing them to stumble backwards. He looked down at the picture Tali gave him. He saw her visor and it gave him strength. Adrenaline rushed through his Quarian veins he shot longer bursts at the Cerberus troopers. He felt something hard impact his shoulder causing him to fall back down against the wall. He saw the blood trail down the wall. He got back up again adrenaline stopping the pain slightly. He shot at the Cerberus troops with one arm and typed something into his omni tool with another sealing off the shoulder section of his suit. He shot back at the troops again feeling the same hard impact hit his chest causing him to fall back down against the wall. Not having enough time to seal of his chest section he sat there against the wall. Blood trickling down his suit he pulled the rifle up from his side and continued to shoot back. He ran out of thermal clips and the Cerberus troops surrounded him he used his last defense he used his biotic powers to make a wall of dark energy between him and Cerberus. The Cerberus troops opened fire on the wall, he could feel himself weakening as they continued to fire. The biotic wall finally broke and the Cerberus soldiers came down on him like vultures. The man from before that ordered the attack walked up to him.

"Sir we got the Quarian he seems to be able to harness his biotic ability without an implant."

"Good, bring him back to base."

A Cerberus soldier came forward and lifted him up on his shoulders, not having the strength to fight back he just lay there being taken away. They reached the cargo hold to a smaller ship. John thought that it added up because when they checked the ship before it was empty. He was taken aboard and put down on the ship. A medic ran up to him and started treating his wounds and repairing the suit breaches. John already felt himself becoming light headed from the loss of blood and from the suit breaches. He felt his nose start to run as he started to get first signs of a cold from his weak immune system.

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><p>Tali ran back to the shuttle and jumped in she yelled to the pilot "GO!"<p>

"Where is the other guy at?"

Tali looked down more tears falling from her eyes and hitting the glass of her visor "Cerberus."

The pilot understood and started to slowly turn away from the ship speeding through open space to get back to the Docking bay A-4B. They arrived at the Docking bay, Tali flung the doors open and ran as fast as she could towards the bridge of the ship. She reached the bridge of the ship and ran into Admirals Shala'Raan and Zaal'Koris.

"Back from the ship transaction already?" Zaal'Koris asked

"Where is John Tali, comms cut off between you two and us."Shala asked

"Cerberus was on the ship, John stayed back to give me time to get back here. We might be able to get back to him if we hurry!"

They ran down to docking bay A-4B and climbed into the shuttle with Lieutenant Assur'Varel and 4 other men and the pilot took them back to the Cerberus ship. They walked through the docking tube and Zaal'Koris spoke up.

"Hmm, unclean environment if your friend had any suit breaches, he would probably be experiencing the effects right now."

Tali looked down, she thought another reason she should have not have left John. Shala saw her look down and hit Zaal'Koris on the shoulder and motioned for him to shut his voice transmitter up and pointed over to Tali. Zaal got the message and shut his mouth. They reached the door Tali had a flashback of what happened.

_She got the door open and yelled to John to get to the door and get out of here. She stepped to the other side of the door her eyes looking toward John as he ran to her. Bullets flying at him as he ran to the door, what seemed like an hour he finally reached her as the door slid shut. She lost control and would have to re hack it all over again_. _John yelled to her to get back to the Rayya but she did not want to leave him behind. She argued that she could re hack the door and get it open for him. He yelled back that they didn't have enough time. She finally gave in and ran back to the shuttle._

She snapped back to reality as they opened the door. Zaal'Koris walked through first and looked to the wall beside the door. Shala stepped forward and look to the wall and covered her voice transmitter. Tali walked through and saw the wall, streaks of blood running down it. Zaal'Koris bent to one knee and opened his omnitool up and scanned the blood on the wall. "That is Quarian blood." he stated there was a trail of blood leading down the hallway

Tali fell against the wall putting her arms on her knees and slumping her head down on her arms and started crying. Zaal'Koris and Shala'Raan could hear her sobs. Shala felt tears in her eyes as well she collected herself and bent down and rested a hand on Tali. "Wait here, child we will look for any signs of John."

Her and Zaal'Koris moved down the hallway following John's blood trail they kept walking down the hallway and it turned off to the Cargo Bay. They walked down into the Cargo Bay and saw scorch marks on the metal.

"They must have had a small shuttle in here and carried John off, those Cerberus Bosh'tets." Shala said.

"So he might be alive. But knowing Cerberus an Human extremist group they will probably torture him or kill him, maybe experiment on him."

It all made sense to Shala and remembered that "John was a biotic." Not noticing she said it out loud. Why else would Cerberus try to take him?

"What? John was a biotic? And you kept this from the Admiralty Board? Did anyone else know that he was a biotic?"

"One other person, Tali John's friend."

"I'm starting to think they have become more than friends, Shala."

"And why would you expect that?" She said putting her hands on her hips, John had never told her about them becoming more than friends.

"Did you see the way she reacted when we found the Quarian blood?" Zaal'Koris answered

"Yes..." Shala recovered herself "Wouldn't you act like that if you knew that was your best friend's blood?"

"Yes..." He answered

"Alright then." She said concluding the conversation

They walked out of the Cargo Bay and back towards, Tali


	4. Away

This chapter will be mostly about Tali and Shepard's life away from each other. Hopefully this will be the best chapter yet.

Chapter 4 : Away

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><p>Tali looked up and saw Shala and Zaal walking towards her. "Did you find him?" she asked in a desperate tone.<p>

Shala finished walk towards her and knelt by her side "I'm sorry Tali we were to late. Cerberus took him."

Tali buried her head in her hands. "I should have never have left him, he saved my life and I repay him by leaving him there with Cerberus, those Cerberus bosh'tets.

"Tali you did all you could."

"No I didn't! I left him here to fight off Cerberus by himself! I should have... I should have..." She started sobbing into her hands.

"Tali, child there was nothing you could have done. He made his choice to stay behind, to protect you." She helped Tali to her feet and rested Tali's head on her shoulder. "Its okay, child. We will make Cerberus pay one day."

Zaal'Koris became tired of this waiting and blurted out "Were you more than friends with John?"

"How... How did you know?"

"Your actions, child." Shala replied

Lieutenant Assur'Varel walked up behind them and said "I know what it is like to lose someone close to you. I lost my Dashnor (lover) to a air virus. She had 2 suit penetrations and did not fix them in time."

Tali gasped "The blood on the wall! If Cerberus does not kill him, he will die of a open air virus!"

Assur put his hand on his visor 'Looks like that didn't work' he said to himself. "He is a tough kid he will pull through."

"Come on Tali lets get back to the Rayya."

"Ok." She said quietly

They went back to the shuttle and rode back to the Rayya telling some pilots to bring the Cerberus ship back, told scientists to go with them to check for any bugs.

"Tali!" her mother and father said greeting her with open arms. She ignored them and ran back to her family quarters.

"Whats got her suit in a wad?" Rael'Zorah asked.

"One of her best friends died in the transaction, John."

"She spent a lot of time with him." He said

"We learned they were more than friends on the ship."

"Find any evidence to what happened to the boy?"

"Cerberus took him away."

"Hmm not usually what Cerberus would do, they are human fanatics, probably to kill him to give a show to their leader."

"Probably, don't mention this to Tali."

"It must be very hard for her." Tali's mother spoke up for the first time

"Yes, it is."

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><p>John woke up beside 3 Cerberus soldiers inside a shuttle with someone over him, giving him Antibiotics and closing his suit holes. He looked around and sat up suddenly, he grabbed the man working over him's neck and put his voice transmitter up to his ear. "Get off me you bosh'tet." The soldiers turned and trained their guns on him.<p>

"GIVE HIM THE SEDATIVE!" One shouted out he felt something being stuck in his side. He lied back down and his grip on the man's neck loosened and his arm fell to his side. His vision started to become blurry and start to darken out. He finally drifted off and the man continued his work on his suit.

He woke up on a gurney in the middle of a room. Tubes in his arms injecting things into his body he looked down at his hands and feet they were strapped to the gurney.

"LET ME GO YOU BOSHTETS!"

A man walked in "Alright listen here you Quarian." He put emphasis on the word Quarian. "If you do fight against us it will hurt more. If you don't it will probably hurt the same if you did fight against us."

"You bosh'tet!"

"I don't even know what that means, but we have noticed that you were a biotic. We are going to run some simple tests on you. If you end up lucky you will die faster than are last subject. I swear I can still hear his screams in this very room. You will be awake for all tests." He walked over towards John and unstrapped his bindings. "First we need to get some food in you before the tests. Don't try to run, the first step you make you will be mowed down."

He climbed off the gurney and moved towards the door. The man dragged him back and punched him in his helmet. "Did I tell you, you could get up and go to the door?" John remained silent "DID I?"

John started to laugh quietly "Here is something you would understand." He walked up and put his visor directly in front of his face. "Fuck you."

"Alright you want to play the hard way. GUARDS" Two guards rushed in he said to them. "Beat this suit rat." One jumped behind John and held him down as he other gave blows to his midsection. He dropped to the ground and felt the hard shoes of the guards hit him repeatedly.

"That is what happens when you misbehave." He said as he called the guards off. He dropped a tube of nutrient paste at his feet. John grabbed it and stood up and clipped it under his mask feeding the paste into his mouth.

The two guards slammed him back on the gurney and strapped him back up. They took the nutrient paste from under his mask. The man smiled "First test."

* * *

><p><strong>3 Weeks later<strong>

Tali was struggling to live her life without John her daily routine had been changed a lot. 1. Wake up 2. Talk to John 3. Go to class with John. 4. Talk to John 5. Go to sleep. She always kept the Shotgun John gave to her with her. When ever she looked at it, It reminded her of John, not only her has been effected by John's disappearance but many people on the Rayya have been effected and the Admirals have came together to discuss if they were going to do anything about it. They came to a conclusion not to risk the entire fleet over one Quarian. Today would be John's 16th birthday. 1 Week and it will be her birthday. Once she gets 16 she will start on her Pilgrimage. She has plans to search for John and also get good technology from Cerberus. She knew he was not dead he would not die that easily.

* * *

><p>Today was John's birthday and he was strapped up to the same Gurney he was on when he arrived. 18 tests in 3 weeks! They did everything they could do to him, gave him red sand, tried to change his Amino Acids. Tried to bolster his immune system. These may seem like favors but they were done in sick ways. The same man who greeted him 3 weeks ago came in.<p>

"Today we are going to give you L5x Biotic Implants if you are lucky your brain won't melt when you try to manipulate dark energy."

"Are you going to put me asleep for this?" He asked. Opening his skull to put implants into his brain! That would be so painful.

"Oh dear, No we need to break you." He walked out of the room and behind the glass. He signaled for the doctors to go in and start their operation. They took his visor and helmet off in complete disregard for his immune system. One reached for a scalpel on a tray behind his head he did a long cut down the top of his head. He felt the scalpel piercing his skin and cutting it open. He felt them pull the skin back, that was when he blacked out.

**5 Hours Later**

He woke up in a room he felt his 3 fingered hands go to the top of his head feeling the cold metal of the helmet. They had replaced his visor and helmet on his head. The man who greeted him was watching him through the glass.

"You see that big crate over there? Try to move it, Or you will be shot."

He closed his eyes and strained his brain and imagined him picking the box up with his third eye. He opened his eyes saw the crate moving upward. He imagined himself putting it down it went down. He looked down to his hands they glowed blue.

"Remarkable, all of are other test subjects had to try at least 10 times before they could move the box. Now pick up that mech over there and rip his arms off."

He closed his eyes and imagined himself picking the mech up and tearing it's arms off. He opened his eyes and saw the mech suspended in the air with his arms being ripped from their sockets.

"Amazing! This is an improvement in many studies. Now create a field of dark energy around you."

He closed his eyes strained his brain and opened his eyes. There was a blue glow all around him he was in some sort of blue bubble. He moved his hands down and the bubble dropped. He moved his hands up and the bubble rose.

"That is enough testing for now. You have made remarkable progress. You will be escorted back to his cell."

Two guards appeared and escorted him back to his cell. Their guns trained on him the whole way, they knew of his new biotic potential.

* * *

><p>"Sir, come look at these graphs of his brain cell activity when and after manipulating dark energy."<p>

He walked over to see the charts.

"Sir, we have compared the charts and his brain activity was that of an Asari Matriarch when manipulating the dark energy."

"Interesting, have you sent these charts to the Illusive Man?"

"They are on the way."

"I want 24/7 supervision on the Quarian he might attempt to escape with his new found biotics. Not that he would get far since we are in the middle of space. But you know Quarians they take a toaster and make it into a frigate." He ran a hand over his smooth bald head.

"Yes, sir. We also have concluded that if we keep him at this pace with surgery and biotic training his estimate years of age until he dies is around 20."

"Do you have any idea how old he is now?"

"No, but we have also concluded he must be somewhere in his teens."

"How is the mind control technology coming?"

"The estimated time it will be done is 4 days."

"Good, good, Once it is done implant it into him."

"Yes, sir we can arrange that."

"Let him get his rest and tomorrow we will continue with his biotic training."

"Yes,sir."

* * *

><p><strong>Two days later <strong>

John sent a Shockwave over to a target dummy ripping him apart, he stood there looking around the room at the tore and ripped dummies.

"Excellent you will be transported back to your cell."

The same two guards walked towards him, his idea sprung into action he bumped into both of them taking the combat knife around one's belt acting like he stumbled he stuffed the combat knife into his hidden boot sheathe.

"Watch it Quarian!" They both said and they took his arms and dragged him back to his cell and threw him in his cell. He reached down to his boot and took the knife out glancing over it.

A Stainless steel version of the Turian combat knife great from stabbing and slashing, he thought to himself that it will come in handy for what he was going to do, he shoved it back into his boot sheathe. He saw a Cerberus fighter plane in the cargo hold when they escorted him back and forth to the training room.

He smiled as he lied down on the gurney and closed his eyes for sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Back on the Rayya... <strong>

'One more day until my pilgrimage' she thought to herself as she lie in her bed 'One more day until I find John' she said to herself. She was constantly getting taught about life outside the Flotilla. She was told what viruses and food she couldn't come in contact with or eat. She was also told that she was probably going to get sick on the first day outside of the Flotilla. She rested her head on her cot her arm rose and rubbed the spot on her left arm where they surgically gave her immunity boosters for the outside journey. She closed her eyes and drifted off.

She woke up in the morning and grabbed John's shotgun from beside her bed and moved out to meet the admirals. She reached the admirals.

"Here you go, Tali." Shala'Raan said giving her armor to put on her suit.

"There you go, Tali." Han'Gerrel said giving her a pistol to go beside her shotgun.

"Just in case." Zaal'Koris gave her medical supplies.

"Remember where you are from." Rael'Zorah said giving her a map. She hugged her father around the waist.

"Bring back something useful against the geth." Daro'Xen said giving her a new omnitool. Her old one was outdated.

"Keelah se'lai." they all said in unison.

"Thank you, admirals." She said as she bowed her head and moved to the docking tube where a transportation ship was to transport her out into the real world.

* * *

><p>John woke up 'Today is it' he said to himself as he got up. He moved to where he was hidden from anyone looking in the glass window. He already eliminated the cameras in his cell. He moved up so he was right beside the door. He grabbed the knife from his Boot sheathe. 'This is it' he said to himself.<p>

"Alright rise and shine." The man said from the intercom. He looked through the window and saw an empty room. 'WHAT'? He said to himself."WHERE THE FUCK DID THE QUARIAN GO? HE IS NOT IN HIS CELL"

"Impossible, sir the cell was locked."

"GO DOWN THERE AND CHECK ON HIM."

"Yes, sir!"

John smiled as he heard the voice of the one he hated scream at a soldier. He readied the knife in his hand. 'No turning back now' he said to himself. The door slid open and he lunged forth. He jumped on top of the soldier and brought the knife crashing down on his neck. Blood formed around his knife, he searched the guard for weapons 'NO GUNS!' he said to himself confused. The two guards beside the door looked down at him. He threw one with his biotics against the wall hearing the thud. He charged at the other and slit his throat. He was too slow to draw his weapon. He saw out of the corner of his eye the guard he threw was getting up. He ran at the guard stabbed him in his stomach ejecting a scream of pain from the guard. He grabbed at the guards belt and pulled the pistol out of his holster. He shot the guard in the head, the guard slumped to the ground. John put his foot on his chest and pulled out the knife. He stuck it in his sheathe on his boot. He moved forward towards main command to kill the man that made him go through all this. Two guards appeared with assault rifles on two doors at his side. They shot he formed a barrier of dark energy around him, it deflected the bullets off. He shot them both in the head and continued to move forward.

"GET ALPHA AND BRAVO TEAM ON THE CELL HOLD!" The bald man yelled watching the Quarian through hidden cameras.

"Sir, Alpha and Bravo team... they are dead, sir." His assistant said in a slightly higher pitched voice than usual.

"Shit!" he screamed out as all the lights turned out."Reroute power." He said.

"Sir, the quarian must have cut the wires!"

"Be quiet... listen." He said.

He heard two feet walking along the metal outside his office. Two yells from the guards that were outside his door. The door was blasted off it's hinges from a biotic shockwave. A Quarian appeared in the doorway blood covering it's visor and suit. A single shot rang out and he saw his assistant fall to the ground. The Quarian moved closer and closer to him. The Quarian slammed him down on his desk and straps from his gurney appeared and he tied the man down on it.

John smiled as he saw the man that ruined his life was incapable of moving.

"I'm... I'm sorry!" the man said

John smiled wider as he dropped the pistol from his hand and grabbed his knife from his boot.

"Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a Quarian. To have 3 fingers and 3 toes?"

"N-...No."

"Well I'm about to show you."

"N-..No.. please stop please!"

He moved forward and started his "surgery".


	5. Friendly Fire

Seems like last chapter was better than I thought it would be. I just wanted to clear a few things up. He will be a mixture of paragon and renegade to paragade. I might use the term "third eye" it is a figure of speech, he does not have a third eye. Pm me if you have any complaints or ideas. Thank you.

Chapter 5: Friendly Fire

* * *

><p>John looked back to the Cerberus man his hands and feet a bloody mass. John started walking to the door.<p>

"Whats your name?" The Cerberus man asked.

"Shepard..." he paused "John'Shepard nar Rayya." He walked out the door and towards the cargo bay. He saw the Cerberus fighter and climbed in. 'Time to get back to the Fleet.' He said to himself as he rocketed out of the station. John put the coordinates into the fighter. He zoomed towards the location, wondering what he was going to say to Shala, Tali, everyone when he got back. He spent a deal of time thinking about Tali and their first "kiss". He reached the location he turned from Glad to mad in a second. 'They moved? They never move this early. Keelah they could be anywhere.' He turned the fighter and flied away towards the nearest planet, Mindoir. One lone ship was traveling in the distance. He squinted his eyes.. it was a transport ship.

* * *

><p>Tali looked out of the window on the transport ship... she squinted her eyes. There was a Cerberus fighter in the distance! She ran up to the cockpit and told the pilot. A human.<p>

"Yeah, right isn't low enough to attack a transport ship."

"I beg to differ, Cerberus was low enough to take one of my best friends away from me."

"Alright, alright quit your yapping. If it gets too close I will pull around and fire on it with our Emergency cannons."

Tali ran back to the window and looked out. It was getting closer! Not far and it would be directly beside them. She held her breath hoping that it would turn and go away. The Cerberus fighter was directly behind them! She ran back to the pilot, "Cerberus is directly behind us!"

"Alright, alright be quiet let me deal with this." He slowly turned the ship to face the fighter.

* * *

><p>John was directly behind the Transport ship trying to connect their comms. Then it turned, John knew what it was doing. "No, no, no." He said to air. The Transport ship opened fire on him. Direct hit to starboard wing. He went rocketing down to the nearest planet, Mindoir the fighter turned and flipped as he entered the atmosphere. "NO!" He yelled. as he was moving straight down to the surface. Flames formed around the top of the fighter. Some parts on the side started breaking off, his hands moved across the controls. He pulled it up slightly as a bone rattling, earth shaking impact happened as he hit the ground. Causing a trail of upturned earth behind the fighter. John lay inside the cockpit, feeling like every bone in his body was broken. He blacked out.<p>

Farmers and colonist circled around the fighter. Wondering what it was or who it was from. They gasped as the locks on the broken glass of the cockpit were released. They all gasped as they saw two hands gloved hands with 3 thick fingers grab the side of the cockpit. The unknown creature pulled itself from the cockpit and landed on the ground. A Quarian!

"Don't mind the fighter... I'm alright-.." He fell visor first down on the ground. Some men rushed forward to help carry his body to the infirmary.

He awoke on a gurney exactly like the one on the Cerberus Station. He quickly moved to roll off of it, when he moved his leg pain rushed through his body. His shifted body weight caused him to fall flat of his visor. He muttered to himself "Bosh'tet." A man walked into the room.

"Whoa, there up already?" He helped John back onto the Gurney.

"Uh- Thanks, human." John said

"My name is Stan, but everyone just calls me Doc nice to meet you."

"Uh- Thank you, Doc." He shifted his position "Whats wrong with me?"

"6 Fractures, you are lucky it is not worse.. your bones are strong you must be drinking a lot of milk."

"Milk?" John asked

"Human drink.. uh never mind." Doc said "And by the way do you have any idea where the blood on your suit came from before? We have tested it, it seems to be human blood."

"Uh no idea."

Doc put his hands on his hips... It reminded him of Tali sometimes she put her hands on her hips.. much more attractive when she did it. "So what happened with you and the fighter."

"Shot out of the air... by Cerberus." He lied

"Ah makes sense there is a near by Cerberus base. A lot of ships have been coming and going from there."

"Yeah.. So when can I get out of here?"

"A few hours, we don't have the tech on the Citadel that heals fractured bones in a few minutes."

"Alright, Doc."

* * *

><p>"Take that you Bosh'tet." Tali said as she saw the fighter hurtle towards the planet.<p>

"Are you happy now?" The pilot said

She ignored what he said. She moved back into the sleeping quarters, which were much bigger than her's on the Flotilla. She actually had a full bed to herself. She sat down on the bed and noticed how comfortable it was. She slowly lied her head down on the pillow closing her eyes drifting off to sleep.

She woke up 3 hours later to hear the voice of the Pilot. "Your stop, lady."

She rose out of the bed and walked to the pilot and handed him some credits. "Thank you." She said.

"Yeah, yeah." he replied.

She moved out of the transport ship to the cesspool that was Omega. She moved out of the docking tube into the city. The first step she took outside of the docking tube a rancid smell hit her. She reached down and fiddled with her suits systems and turned her olfactory system off. That was better she moved forward noticing the cramped conditions of the place. Kind of like the Flotilla. She continued walking through the city and then felt someone bump into her hard, she reached down and felt her credits gone! She ran after the thing that took her Credits. By telling from the back she could see that it was a Turian. She ran fast after him. Leading her into a poorer condition of the city. She ran into people yelling Sorry behind her as she continued the chase. She saw him turn into a warehouse, she approached carefully and peered into the door.

"Hah, Just stole some credits from a Quarian." he said to a Krogan and a Human.

"Bah, not like they would put up much of a fight. They are Quarian you know." The Krogan said.

"How much did you get?" The human asked

He paused and flipped through the credits. "40 Credits not bad for a Quarian."

"We can finally order that Red Sand now." The Human said.

"Bout time." The Krogan added.

Tali took a deep breath, gathered the courage in her and walked through the door. "Uh, could you please give me my credits back?"

The Krogan, Human, and Turian looked at her in surprise as she appeared. They nearly fell over laughing...

"Please- Haha Please give me my credits back Hahaha." The Turian said in between laughs.

Tali felt her temper rise. "I will ask one more time, you bosh'tet. Give me my credits back."

"Or what?" The Turian said rising from his seat and pushing his face against her visor.

"I have a shotgun." She said as she pulled it from behind her.

The Turian faked being scared "Oh no she has a shotgun. Tell you what Quarian, you take off your mask and we will give you the credits."

"No." She replied

"Not an option." The Turian replied pulling out his pistol. He aimed at her and shot, The bullet zoomed past grazing her arm and ripping her suit. She dove behind cover and readied herself for what she was about to do. She never killed anyone before. She closed her eyes and turned from cover and shot the shotgun. She cracked her eyes and saw the Turian fly back a look of surprise on his face he landed on his back, blood pouring out of his wound. The Krogan and Human watched, they slowly backed up then ran the other way. She could hear the rattling breaths of the Turian.

"Should have just gave me the credits." Tali said as she walked up and extracted the credits from the Turian's pocket. She turned and walked out of the warehouse. Tali looked down to the suit rip, Tali quickly sealed off the forearm part of her suit. She took out some of the medical supplies Zaal'Koris gave her and ruffled through them for a bit. She finally found a suit repair kit, Tali started repairing her suit rip.

* * *

><p>"Hey! Quarian." A teenager around John's age yelled over to him. His fractures healed only in 3 hours with the help of medical supplies that the fleet would never have. He looked back to the teenager.<p>

"Yeah?"

"Ever heard of something called basketball?"

"No..."

"Come here then!" He walked over to the Teenager. "My name is James, what is yours?"

"John'Shepard nar Rayya." He replied

"Well John'Shepard nar Rayya." He extended his 5 finger hand and John took it with his 3 fingered hand. His memory flashed back to the Cerberus Man in which he turned his 5 fingers into 3. He snapped out of his flashback.

"Hey, you alright?" James saw John's lighted eyes gaze down.

"Yeah, fine. So what is this basketball?"

James explained the rules and how to handle the ball. "So you just bounce it against the ground and try to get it through the hoop?"

"Yeah that's basically it." James said.

"So want to try your luck in a game?"

"Sure."

They started to play the game as at least 3 frigates passed over them. He recognized them as Batarian slavers, On the flotilla they were taught how to identify Batarian slavers.

"James we got to get out of here."

"What, why?"

He pointed to the ships "Batarian Slavers we have to hide."

"What about the rest of the colony?"

"One second... he said. He opened his Omnitool the one he stole from the Cerberus man. He tapped into their comms, he contacted the Main tower where controls to the colony's defense guns were and regulations for all ships passing.

"Yes?"

"We have Batarian Slavers east side of the colony." John said into his omnitool.

"Is this a joke? Who is this."

"Its the Quarian, with James we have 3 Slaver frigates overhead."

"One second we see-."

The main tower crumbled as it was hit with the Frigate's main gun. "Oh Shit!" James yelled out. "Keelah, we need to get out of here do you have a family?"

"No, my mom and dad died years ago. Follow me, I know the perfect place to hide.." He followed James as he led him to the middle of a corn field. "Right here." He lifted up a piece of wood and there was a space big enough for two maybe 3 people. They both got in the hole.

They waited for what seemed like hours then they heard a voice from above. "Did you get them all?" A raspy voice said.

"We got most of them. Some wanted to fight they died. We even got our way with some of the women."

James shook his head. They heard the foot step directly above their hiding place. "Wait a minute does this seem a little hollow and wooden to you?"

"Now that you mention it yeah." He thumped his foot against the wooden piece above them. James and John held their breath. "There might be some colonists hiding under it." He knelt down to move the wooden piece. John was ready and waiting for him to do that. The Batarian moved the wood aside, sunlight flooded in. A split second after they moved the wood aside John hit the Batarian with a throw. He was sent backwards, John grabbed his pistol from his belt and pointed it at the other Batarian. The other Batarian was ready though, he had his assault rifle out. He shot, John and James scurried out of the hole.

"Run, James I will hold them off! I will catch up to you if I can!" He saw out of the corner of his eye James running backwards. The Batarian he threw gathered himself up and was beside the Commanding Batarian with his assault rifle leveled at John's head.

"Hmm, A Quarian, will fetch a nice price to those who are willing to buy. And a Biotic Quarian, will fetch a higher price."

John pulled the trigger back and steam rose from his weapon. 'No thermal clips? You got to be kidding me' He said to himself.

"Hah, he doesn't even have a weapon." The Batarian called out.

John lowered his defenses and bowed down on one knee.

"Yeah that's right bow to your new masters."

Unknown to the Batarians, He was grabbing his handy boot knife. He grabbed it in his hand and concealed it behind his forearm. He approached them he got closer and closer. He was standing face to face with them. He flicked his knife out at this moment slitting the throat of the nearest Batarian and firing up his biotics at the same time. The other Batarian dove backwards and ran behind a tree. John leveled the knife in his hand pointing at the Batarian's position. The Batarian popped out of cover and fired two shots at John, harmlessly bouncing off his barrier. He used all his biotic strength to send the knife forward. The knife hurtled out of his hand and imbedded itself in the Batarian's skull. Clean shot. He moved to the Batarian, put his foot on his chest and grabbed his knife he tugged it out of the skull of the Batarian. Grabbing his Assault Rifle he put his knife back in his boot. He ran towards the direction James had ran in. He moved across the country side seeing 3 massive Frigates opening fire on the Colony, smoke from burning buildings rising. He made it to the front gate of the colony. Peaking his head out of the corner he saw a couple of Colonists and Batarians. He opened fire on them impacting one in the back of the head causing him to fall face first onto the earth, dead. He fired back to the other Batarians. Impacting one in the back of the leg causing him to fall on his back. He shot the other two and they both fell dead. He moved towards the wounded Batarian. Sending his 3 toed foot crashing down on his head, with a little biotic force caused his head to cave in. He approached the Colonists.

"You are save now."

"The slavers have the rest of us towards east of the colony." One yelled out

"Alright, stay here."

He ran towards the east of the colony. He saw an Alliance ship overhead, it touched down and dropped a patrol of Marines. They ran towards John and the commanding officer asked "Whats the situation?"

"We have Batarian Pirates attack us, I have dealt with the west side of the colony. I am heading to the East right now." Their commanding officer clapped him on the shoulder. "Good job. Come with us we might need your help on the east side."

John nodded and followed in behind the Marines. "Ramirez take Hutchinson, Guido, and Osman and cover our left side. I will take The Quarian, Robinson and Gideon and go right. Lets flank them."

John saw Ramirez, Hutchinson, Guido, and Osman go left as Him, The Commanding Officer, Robinson and Gideon went right. He saw the Batarian slavers around a group of 20 or 30 Colonists. James among them. James saw the team approach and John rose his finger to his Voice transmitter. He got the answer. They moved behind cover and Ramirez moved his team behind cover. The Commanding Officer opened his hand then closed it into a fist. They all popped out of cover and shot at the Batarians. The Batarians scurried behind cover slowly getting picked off. A Shot impacted Robinson and he fell to the ground, still alive but injured. Ramirez's team flushed the Batarians out and they picked them off.

"Good Job, Squad." He exclaimed out loud. "And I never caught your name." He said approaching John.

"John'Shepard nar Rayya."

"Alright then, Shepard. I have one more favor to ask of you. Direct orders from Alliance brass, Since I am one man down." He pointed over to Robinson "I need someone to step up. I saw your combat skills and I would like to ask you if you would like to join my squad." He said "Just for one mission." He added.

"What will the mission be?"

"Just a routine checkup on one of our Pioneer teams on this planet called Akuze."

"Sure, but I need transport after the mission."

"Alright, we can handle that, sounds like a deal." They shook hands. "And for curiosity how old are you?"

"16." He replied.

"Ok if anyone asks how old you are say 18."

"Alright..."

"Good lets get a move on then!"


	6. Akuze

Now we are starting to get into Akuze, still not to the main story line. If you liked the Biotic Knife Throw, I could do more of those sometime in the story. A weird twist to how Shepard defeats a Thresher Maw in this story.

Chapter 6: Akuze

* * *

><p>John walked over to James to say his goodbyes. "How the hell did you get caught?" He blurted out.<p>

"And how the hell did you survive... I mean I thought you were going to die by those two Batarians then you just *whoosh* came in and saved the day... with a little help from the Alliance."

John smiled behind his visor "Yeah, well now the Alliance needs my help on a mission."

"Ah, I see after they saw you in combat no way could they turn you down."

"Yeah, I guess and they were also one man down." He pointed his thumb back to Robinson.

"So we won't be seeing each other again for a while?"

"Yeah." He stated

"Once I get enough money to rent a ship, I can go to the Citadel and maybe we could meet up there one day and have drinks or something. I'm sure your suit has some button or gadget that allows you to drink outside stuff."

"Yeah, it does, sounds good if you ever make it to the Citadel just send me a message on my omnitool."

"Alright, but did you say if you ever make it to the Citadel?" He frowned

"Yeah?"

"I know I'm going to make it to the Citadel!" He laughed

He caught the Commanding Officer waving over to him. "Well I gotta go. See you on the Citadel."John told James.

"Alright, Man take it easy."

He saw Guido pick Robinson up and carry him to the ship. The rest of the team followed behind Guido and Robinson.

"Wait, why is the Quarian here?" Ramirez blurted out once they boarded the ship.

"I asked him personally, Ramirez."

"Come on "Staffy" this is a human squad, a human operation. This Quarian doesn't belong here with us, he doesn't even have the training."

"From what I've seen of him he could kick your ass and throw you out the trash compacter in seconds." "Staffy" said.

"Your name is Staffy?" John asked.

"No it's just a nickname they gave me." He said indicating over to the Marines. "My Rank and name is Staff Lieutenant Stafford guess you can tell why they call me Staffy."

John thought to himself 'Humans do some weird things.'

They walked out of the Cargo hold and onto the Bridge. Some people turned and looked at John in amazement. Most of them have never seen a Quarian in their life. Some people questioned him being on the ship, for Quarian's bad reputation. Staffy walked across the room towards the back, and went towards a set of stairs leading down below the Bridge. John followed as the rest of the Marines branched off into different parts of the ship.

"This is where you will sleep." Staffy motioned towards a sleeping pod. John looked around, much more space than he had on the Rayya. "You might want to get rest before Akuze, here is something for you also. We have all been given diagrams of Thresher Maws. We have been told they are in the area." He took the datapad from Staffy's hands. Staffy walked back up the stairs giving him some privacy before the mission. He looked down to the datapad. It showed what looked like a giant worm with tentacles and a huge tongue. He zoomed into it and looked inside of it. He noticed it had something like two tubes running down it's throat. It's esophagus was on the left side running down into his stomach. The other tube ran into an acid like pit. He read the text at the bottom, It was known for spitting acid which is highly deadly. He put the datapad down next to a box and sat down next to it. He reached into one of his suit's pockets, it revealed the same photo he looked at before he was captured by Cerberus. Him and Tali together after they had been given their suits. A single tear trickled down behind his black tinted visor.

* * *

><p>Tali walked through Omega, she had come in contact with many types of Aliens like Humans, Salarians, Vorcha, Asari. She had noticed that this place was based off of crime and fear. She hadn't had any run-ins since the Turian had stole her credits. She didn't like Omega, she wanted to be leave this rock, but the next passenger ship was not due until 3 days. She had been certain that Omega would be a good place to start to look for any Cerberus operatives. She had no luck yet, but she wasn't going to give up her search for John. Two vorcha shoved into her.<p>

"Watch where you are going, suit rat!" The vorcha said. She ignored the comment, she had recieved many since she arrived on Omega. She had noticed the bad reputation for Quarians.

A human watched from a distance. He had been tracking her ever since he arrived on Omega. He had noticed she had done a lot of digging around about Cerberus. He officially hated Quarians after, few days ago a biotic Quarian had cut off 2 fingers on each hand and two toes on each foot, ruined his operation and killed all of his scientists. He ran his 3 fingers over his bald head, he had been told off by The Illusive Man for letting a Quarian best him. He noticed ever since he arrived on Omega that the female Quarian he had been tailing had the same suit as the female Quarian when they ambushed the ship and got the biotic Quarian. He continued to watch the Quarian as she moved across Omega. He wanted to stay hidden to figure out what exactly she is doing. Perhaps she had whereabouts of the Biotic Quarian, maybe he could redeem himself in the eyes of the Illusive Man. He moved out of the cover and towards the Quarian.

Tali recognized the man walking towards her. He was the man that lead the ambush on John and Her. "You!" she called out.

* * *

><p>John woke up to Staffy shaking his arm. He climbed out of the pod and he followed Staffy up the stairs. They moved towards the briefing room where the rest of the Marines assembled checking their weapons. Staffy handed him a Shotgun which he strapped on the small of his back. An holographic image of the area they would be landing in appeared, the room dimmed as Staffy stepped up. "Alright, listen up." The Marines fell silent.<br>"We will be landing here." He said indicating to an area on the image. "The Colony of Akuze is across this desert, it is called the Sea of Maws, it is known to be a harsh and deadly desert, with all kinds of stuff you don't want to get attacked by. We will try to avoid that area, another reason not to go near it, it is known to have a nest of thresher maws directly under it. So we will not try to harass them, alright?" Everyone nodded in agreement. " Ok the closest comm link is in the Colony of Akuze which is across the Sea of Maws. So if we need to contact the Alliance or anyone we will be connecting from there. Maybe bad signals because of the Sea of Maws. If we have to move to the Colony we will take a shuttle across the Sea of Maws. Moving across it is too dangerous, I know this is sudden and all but we will be in and out in seconds. All we need to do is to see if our pioneering team is alright, then I will be buying us a round of drinks back on the Citadel. We move in an hour." Everyone finished checking their weapons and armor, they moved out of the room. Leaving Ramirez and John alone together.

Ramirez walked towards him, John braced himself for a telling off about improper training and to stay back away from the rest of them while they work. "Sorry if we got off on the wrong foot." Ramirez said. John's mouth dropped behind his visor, hitting the cold metal under his chin then closed his mouth. Ramirez extended a hand, and John took it. "Just wanted to say, Good luck out there."

"Thanks." Ramirez and John moved out of the briefing room together.

All of them met up an hour later in the cramped Shuttle. Barely being able to hold all of them and one pilot, John was next to Guido and Hutchinson. They moved out from the ship and moved towards Akuze. John looked out the tinted windows and saw the Colony of Akuze. He was shocked as he saw rubble and ruins of buildings. He looked around and saw that no one seemed to notice it. They kept moving forward towards their landing zone. He looked back out and saw a vast desert he could swear he could see the sand moving around. He looked out and saw something erupt from the sand. It looked like a giant worm, it swiped it's head towards the shuttle. The shuttle shuddered and dived towards the sandy ground. The marines held on for dear life against the seats and straps. They impacted against the sand, The impact pushed part of the shuttle in and a door fell in on the inside. John was shoved forward and hit his helmet against the hard steel, knocking him out the door fell on top of him pinning him against the hard metal floor.

* * *

><p><strong>Cerberus Base on Akuze.<strong>

"Sir, we have provoked the Thresher Maws and they have destroyed an Alliance Pioneering Team and the Colony of Akuze. We have studied their ways of attack and movement. We have concluded that they have a large Labyrinth of tunnels underneath the sea of maws. Leading to the main chamber. We have also now discovered than an Alliance Marine team shuttle was knocked down by a Thresher Maw in the Sea of Maws."

"Good job, continue provoking the Maws and see how they react against weapons."

"Yes, Sir."

* * *

><p>John woke up pinned against the floor. He tried to push the door off of him. It would not budge, he fired up his biotics and pushed, the door flew out the gaping hole where it use to be. He climbed to his feet, reached behind him and grabbed his Shotgun. He ran out of the shuttle to the firefight.<p>

"So your up!" Staffy said in between bursts from his Assault Rifle. John looked to what him and the other marines were firing at. A Thresher Maw stood before them. "Keelah!" John said. It looked bigger in person, they kept firing at the Maw as it bobbed up and down through the sand. The Maw shot out some acid and it hit Guido in the chest. John ran over to Guido as Guido cried out as his armor started to disintegrate and the acid seeped down onto his bare chest. It melted his skin away the acid kept eating away at Guido. John stood there horrified, he could do nothing for Guido, Guido slowly and painfully died against the sand.

"Fuck!" Ramirez called out as he saw Guido go down. Hutchinson screamed out as acid hit him on the side of his face. He fell to the sand clutching his face. John jumped over Guido's dead body and made his way to Hutchinson, he removed his hands from his face and turned to John. John slid and fell to the ground as he saw Hutchinson's face half of it was ate away by the acid. Showing bone, the bone was slowly ate away. To John's horror the left side of his face collapsed having no bone structure to hold it up. Only Ramirez, Staffy, Gideon, Himself and Osman were left. They ran behind the crashed shuttle.

"Osman! Try to contact our ship!" Osman tried to establish comms with the ship. He finally contacted them.

"Ground Team is taking heavy losses. We need backup now!"

The Thresher Maw spit acid at their cover. It slowly disintegrated the metal of the shuttle. They ran in different directions as the Thresher Maw burst from the ground and took the shuttle in his mouth and threw it at Osman. It hit Osman dead on and he yelled out as it fell on his legs, It slowly tilted over and crushed the rest of his body.

"Shit! Osman is down!"

Gideon dropped to one knee and continued to fire at the Thresher Maw. The Thresher went under and burst from the sand under Gideon, It carried him up in its mouth, then crushed him in his mouth. A ship flew over the area dropping 4 large shuttles over the area. The rest of the Marines on the ship clambered out. About 50 of them. They all shot at the Maw as it went under. It came out sideways and used its mouth to take out the feet of the Marines, Sending 15 of them to the ground with their legs torn off. They scattered the Thresher burst from the ground again. Spitting acid at a group of Marines. It rained down on them they screamed as their armor and skin melted away. The rest of the Marines clumped up and fired at the Maw as it went under again. The Marines realizing their stupidity tried to run as the Maw burst from the ground taking the rest of the Marines in his mouth.

John looked around body parts and crimson blood all around him. Only Ramirez, Staffy and Himself remained. Ramirez called to him and Staffy. "What the fuck are we going to do?"

"Only thing we can do, fight."

The Thresher appeared and thrust it's head sideways hitting Ramirez and sending him back against the sand. It then turned it's attention to Staffy and John. It thrust it's head sideways again John jumped but Staffy was too slow. He was sent backwards and he collapsed on the sand. The Thresher then turned to John, John fired his shotgun and tried to run backwards. In a blink of an eye he noticed he was in the Thresher's mouth. He climbed onto the long tongue and reached down to his boot and drew his knife. He stabbed his knife down onto the Thresher's tongue. He climbed forward towards the Thresher's mouth with one idea in mind. He used the knife as something to hold onto as the Thresher swung his head back and forth trying to lose John from his tongue. John reached the top of the tongue and dived forward narrowly dodging the jaws of the Thresher. He was inside the mouth of the Thresher. He saw two tubes. 'Which one led to the Stomach?' he asked himself panicking as he heard the sound of the Thresher drawing acid. He dived down the left fleshy tube. He fell forward down into the Thresher's body. He fell into the Stomach of the Thresher. He smelled flesh inside the Stomach, he looked around and saw the body parts of some Marines. He grabbed his Shotgun and moved towards the wall of the Stomach. Feeling his way because he had no light. He grabbed his Shotgun and put it directly against the wall of the Stomach and fired. He could feel the acid in the stomach eating away at his feet. He fired again and again finally making a hole in the wall. He grabbed each side of the hole and fired his biotics up and increased his strength as he pulled. It came apart, stomach acid rushing down towards the open hole, just being stopped by the tough inside of the Thresher's skin. He got his shotgun and fired at the new obstacle. It did not make a dent in the fleshy inside. He had an idea, He clipped the shotgun to the small of his back, developed dark energy around his fist and punched the wall. It bent inward some, he continued to do this with both fists. It seemed like it was working!

Ramirez sat up and saw the Thresher's midsection protruding outward. "What the...? The Thresher's midsection exploded outward revealing John as he jumped out. Thresher blood all on him, The Thresher fell to the ground, finally dead. "Badass..." Ramirez said. John collapsed to the ground on his hands and knees. Ramirez ran to him and helped him to his feet. "Good job! He slapped John on the shoulder. He noticed some of his suit was ate away. They both looked over to Staffy who was just now getting to his feet.

"So, it is finally dead?" Staffy asked they both nodded. "Let me try to get a comms link with the ship." He fiddled with his omnitool for a few minutes. "Nothing." He said "We better start moving towards the colony. We need to establish a comm link or find help."

John spoke out "When we flew over I saw the colony, it must have been destroyed by Threshers."

"Maybe, someone still might be there, maybe the comms tower is still up."

"It's worth a shot."

They all turned to look at the small speck in the distance that was the colony of Akuze.


	7. Akuze 2

Shepard will be working his way off Akuze and Tali will have a nice conversation with our Cerberus "Friend".

Chapter 7: Akuze 2

* * *

><p>John, Ramirez, and Staffy all started to make their way across the blistering desert. They walked up and down dunes of sand, not getting any closer to their location. Quickly the heat caused them to start sweating profusely even with a conditioning system John was sweating as much as both of the Humans. They continued walking but dehydration was starting become a major problem, it started to take it's tole on each of them shuffling their feet through the sand. They looked off into the distance and saw a Thresher Maw madly swinging it's head above the ground, he was about the size of a pin at this distance.<p>

Ramirez plopped down on the sand. "What the fuck did we get ourselves into?"

"I don't know, and I don't really care we need to get out of this desert. Get back on your feet Marine and keep moving." Staffy replied back to him.

He worked his way back to his feet slowly. They all looked back to where the Thresher was. It was gone. "So I guess that is why they call this 'The Sea of Threshers'. Must be a dozen of those things underneath us." Ramirez said.

The idea of Thresher Maws beneath him chilled John to the bone. But he did not speak up and only kept moving. They continued walking through the blistering desert, only seeing a few Threshers show their ugly heads. They continued walking up through the sand until it became sundown.

"I guess we better make camp here. Get comfortable temps in this desert can drop below zero." Staffy called out.

"Well that is just great." Ramirez replied as he plopped down on the sand once again. He moved beside Staffy and started conversation with him. John ignored them and moved a little way, away from them. He fell onto the sand, totally exhausted. He reached down to his boot and took his knife out, he saw the blood he never bothered to clean off on it. It reminded him how his life went to hell in just a few weeks. John threw it into the sand beside him. He reached into one of his suit's pockets, he pulled out the picture Tali had given him. Seeing her visor once again, She must have started her Pilgrimage already, unless she decided she was not prepared for it and decided to hold back until she was ready. That was unlike her she was ready, most of the time.

He rested his head down beside his knife, making sure to point it away from him. He grabbed the handle of the knife and prepared for a restless night. A night filled with terror in his dreams and out.

As he bobbed in and out of sleep he saw the ghastly face of the Marine that was hit in the face with acid, half of his face burned off. Him and the other marines continued to haunt his dreams and thoughts, the scene of the fight repeated itself in John's head. He saw the Marine's feet cut from under them by the Thresher. He saw his squad mates die. He heard the screams of the young Marines being decapitated by the Thresher. He smelt the rancid odor of the Thresher. He felt the rough skin of the Thresher, He felt the acid in the Thresher's stomach trying to eat away at his feet. He remembered the darkness that consumed him when he went inside the stomach of the Thresher. He woke up to feel sweat covering the inside of his suit, it did not feel like the temperature dropped under zero.

Throughout the night Staffy and Ramirez cast worried glances up to their new Quarian friend. Seeing him twitch convulsively, they both knew that the previous battle had done a great deal to the Quarian. They also both knew he probably never seen so many people massacred by one thing. They also knew he was very powerful, taking down a Thresher when no one else could, pretty amazing.

"Does he sound younger than 18 to you." Ramirez closed the silence turning to face Staffy.

"Well.." Staffy hesitated. Knowing that it was wrong for him to bring a child along with them. Against many Alliance protocols which would probably end up getting him discharged from the Alliance, if he survived this and then again no one really cares about Quarians. But after Staffy saw this... Quarian.. Shepard he had changed his outlook on Quarians. Showing to him that Quarians can be more than scavengers and thieves. If he survived Akuze he was going to go directly to Admiral Hackett and ask for... Shepard to be given a medal for his valor at Akuze.

"Well what?" Ramirez asked, catching on to Staffy's tone and knowing that he had been left out on a secret.

"He is not 18 he is 16." Staffy said quickly to get the worse over.

"Haha, thats a good joke." He turned to look at Staffy's face. "It's not a joke is it...?" Staffy shook his head. "FUCK! What is wrong with you bringing a kid with us into the field?" He face palmed, "You got to be kidding me! So if this kid dies, it will be your fault! All you had to do was drop him off on the Citadel or something. We could have gotten a different replacement for Robinson!"

Staffy hung his head in shame as he listened to Ramirez's rant. He never thought it would be this bad. Just a simple check up on one of our pioneering teams. That's all! Was that so wrong? Ramirez continued his rant through the night. They both were unable to catch any sleep through the night, temperatures were low and morale was low.

They all were on their feet at sunrise, ready to move. John carefully stowed his knife and picture away. They all got ready for a long day of walking ahead of them.

* * *

><p>The Cerberus Man continued to walk up to Tali, slightly limping because he did not have all of his toes there. Literally.<p>

"You!" Tali recognized the man that had authorized the attack on them. She pulled out the M-300 Claymore John had given her.

The Cerberus Man moved 2 hands up into the air spreading both sets of his 3 fingers out, to show he had no weapon. Tali kept the shotgun pointed at the man. "What did you do with him!" She said surprisingly intimidating.

"Do to who?" He kept his hands in the air, he knew perfectly well who. Test subject Shepard.

"Don't play stupid! You know who!"

"You mean the Quarian?" He wanted to test her patience, see how far she would go.

"Yes! What did you do with him?" She asked again.

"Well he is obviously not here with me. If I knew where he was I wouldn't tell you anyway."

"You're- You're lying you know where he is, you are the one who took him!"

"What do you want with Test Subject Shepard?"

"He is not a Test Subject! He is John'Shepard nar Rayya!"

"You are actually correct. He is not a Test Subject. At the moment." He moved a step forward.

"What are you talking about?"

He took another step forward "Well you see he escaped a few days ago." He took another step forward. Trying to distract her with conversation as he moved forward.

"How?" She asked.

He almost laughed at her curiosity. "He used the 'gifts' we gave him to escape. And when he did, he took two of my toes and fingers on each hand. He took a Cerberus Fighter, I watched from the vid cameras. He was shot down quickly, to my surprise a transport ship. He rocketed down to Mindoir, even if he did survive the crash, which is highly unlikely, slavers sacked Mindoir a few hours after he arrived."

Tali gasped she was on the Transport ship and she was beside Mindoir... and she asked the Pilot to shoot down a Cerberus Fighter. She killed John! 'No..No...No' she repeated in her head. It was not her... It was the pilot! He listened to her! But she was the one who told him to do it... Tears started down her face. She couldn't help but notice that John was not usually that... cruel.. they must have hurt him a great deal for him to down right torture someone. As she silently cried behind her visor, she loosened her grip on her Shotgun. The Cerberus Man saw it also, he lunged forward grabbing the Shotgun, but it was quickly tore from his 3 fingered grip. He did not have all the strength of his fingers. Tali ran from the man as fast as she could. Wanting to get off Omega more than ever. She found refugee in a small cramped ally way.

It reminded her of the Spare Engineering Room back on the Rayya, small and cramped. It was where John and Her shared their first "kiss". She reached the back of the Ally. Dead End. She sank down to the wall and buried her face in her hands and silently cried. She wished that they never boarded that Cerberus ship.

**Three Days** had passed since her meeting with the Cerberus man. She had not been disturbed in her Ally, she had remained sitting there for three days. She was hungry but that could wait, the Transport Ship to the Citadel was going to arrive soon. She made her way out of the small cramped ally. She bolted through the City of Omega to the Transport station. She arrived just on time, she was asked for credits, 40. She gave it happily to the attendant and boarded.

They reached the Citadel not long after leaving. She was very happy when she finally made it to the Citadel. Finally being able to turn her olfactory systems back on. She breathed in the Fresh Suit Purified air through her nose. Not smelling anything bad. She stepped off the Shuttle and moved into her new destination.

* * *

><p>John, Staffy, and Ramirez continued to move through The Desert. The occasional Thresher popping up in the distance, they had no longer become alarmed by it. It happened every few minutes. Staffy and Ramirez said they looked like they had Tourette Syndrome Thrashing their heads around like that. What ever that meant but John had never heard of that syndrome and was not even sure it existed. They continued moving forward their destination becoming a little closer. Today was hotter than the day before, Staffy and Ramirez took off their shirts as they walked. John was not able to do that with his suit, but he could take some layers off. He took off ceremonial cloth and some of his armor and other things he did not need slowing him down. After he took all of the good stuff off his suit it only left a thin layer of suit where you could see the muscles and outlines of John's body waist to neck. He thought to himself 'Tali would like this'. He tied the Black Ceremonial Cloth around the top of his Helmet. Carrying the rest of his things over his shoulder, he was way cooler than before, even if it still felt he was inside a greenhouse in a middle of a desert. The sun became so bright that he actually polarized his visor. This was an advantage to him though, for Ramirez and Staffy did not have the Visor or a helmet for that matter, were left to shield the sun with their hands.<p>

When Staffy and Ramirez looked over to John, only a thin layer of suit on his chest, were surprised at how fit he was for his age. They continued walking through the Desert until the need for water became more. Luckily for John the belt he wore around his chest was very useful, when cut open it revealed 3 tubes of nutrient paste, antibiotics, and special dextro-amino acid, specially purified water just in case, if they lose the nutrient paste, for they get most of their water from the paste. It was standard that almost every Quarian take a Wilderness Survival class for when they go out on their pilgrimage. And or if they get dropped off on a planet for their behavior. They were shown how to operate the Emergency Induction Port, that sucked the water into their mouth. They only needed to suck on it, and the water would come to their mouth. Pretty amazing invention for Quarians being able to drink things.

Finally it reached sundown for the second time. Ramirez fell against the sand, Staffy sat down, and John wandered a little off before he sat down. He promised himself he was not going to sleep, for the images from his dreams were too painful to bear. He just fell against the sand, he turned his head to look up at the sky, he never really noticed it but there were white fluffy things in the blue sky. This was something he was deprived of all of his life, for whenever he looked up he just saw the metal roof of a ship. He also so magnificent colors of orange and red in the sky as the sun set. He put his armor and ceremonial cloth back on his suit. He wanted to heat himself up for the night was going to be cold. He put his feet to his chest and prepared himself to wait the whole night.

"So how are we going to get out of here?" Ramirez asked Staffy.

"Well when we get to the colony maybe we could get a signal of a comm buoy and reach our ship."

"And what if we can't get a signal of a comm buoy?"

"Well then, we will cross that bridge when we get to it."

"And what if we get attacked by a Thresher before we get to the colony?"

"Well, then we will be attacked by a Thresher. You are very optimistic." He said sarcastically.

They both turned in the sand, and looked at Shepard. He was facing the other direction on top of a dune, knees to his chest looking out over the desert.

"Sucks for him to be pulled into all this mess." Staffy said.

"Yep, he had to go through Mindoir now Akuze. But how did he get on Mindoir in the first place?" Ramirez replied.

"No idea, and that's not even the weird part, a biotic Quarian? Never heard of that before."

"Yes, I heard from somewhere that they are actually geth but in disguise like one of those Aliens from the vids."

"Do you really think that under the mask they are geth?"

"It's possible considering no one knows what is under that mask, and the geth revolted from them 300 years ago the suits could be just a coverup you know?"

"Uh, not really, why would some geth be in suits and others not? It does not add up and adding to that, do geth have muscle? We saw his muscle outlines through his suit. Geth are metal."

"Half Organic Half Synthetic?"

"Could work."

They turned over and fell asleep on the sand.

They woke up next morning and was ready to go at sunrise again. Another hot day, they took off their shirts, but John kept his suit on this time. He was ahead of Ramirez and Staffy by a few paces. The colony of Akuze, still in the distance but growing larger. The Thresher Maw activity is become closer and closer to them, as they could only tell from vibrations in the ground if someone is moving. Sand did not give out many vibrations but the few that were given out a few Threshers picked up. They were at this moment traveling to the exact spot of Staffy, Ramirez and John were at.

John continued walking until he heard some noise behind him, Ramirez had fell into a Thresher Maw tunnel, the sand above must have gave away as he stepped on it. They ran back to him, luckily the tunnel was not deep and they were able to get him out in a few minutes. As they got him out the ground started rumbling faintly, assuming it was Threshers beneath them, they tried to ignore it and keep moving. They were almost to the Colony, a few more miles and that would do it. All 3 of them given a new power at their near success starting jogging towards it. Sending bigger vibrations.

They were half a mile down before a Thresher Maw popped from the ground directly in front of them. Larger than the other one they had faced. John was at the lead and was first to be taken down. A large claw the Thresher had near it's mouth struck down across his Torso, ripping through his suit as it was like Jello and tearing his skin and leaving a large bleeding gash across his chest. He was sent backwards at the force of the attack. He face planted into the sand a distance away. The impact cracked his visor, sending a long crack across his visor. It did not go all the way through so it did not break his visor. He rolled over on his back, examined the wound. It was deep. He needed immediate medical attention or he could...die. He tore his belt from around his chest, causing pain to shoot through his body. He broke the belt open and a few medical supplies came out. A few immuno-boosters and antibiotics. He had a few already in the injection tubes in his body. He activated his Omnitool sending all the antibiotics he had into his system, plus the new immuno-boosters and antibiotics.

Ramirez and Staffy were faster to react, they pulled out their weapons and fired at the Maw. Doing barely any damage due to the armor of the Thresher Maw. The Thresher spit acid at both of them, easily dodging it with a combat roll the continued to fire.

"Cover me! I will secure the Quarian!" Staffy shouted at Ramirez.

Ramirez gave a nod and gritted his teeth together as he fired at the Maw. "Die! You motherfucker!" Ramirez yelled.

Staffy ran back to John, looked at his wounds. He knew it was bad, especially for a Quarian for having the higher risk of death for infection.

"Hurry up Staff! I can't hold em' off forever!" His gun overheated. "Come on you piece of junk!"

He grabbed Shepard and ran back to Ramirez. Staffy pulled his weapon and helped Ramirez.

"We have to get out of-" Ramirez's sentence was cut short as the Thresher turned and thrashed it's head downward. Ramirez tried to move, but was too slow he was crushed under the Maw.

"Fuck!" Staffy yelled out as he saw Ramirez go down.

The Thresher only feeling one more moving vibration turned it's attention to Staffy. The Thresher threw itself at Staffy, he grabbed John and threw him to the side, as the full impact of the Thresher hit Staffy, killing him almost instantly.

The Thresher did not since anymore movement so it went back down into it's desert nest.

John lay on the sand paralyzed by what just happened. Ramirez then Staffy were taken down by the Maw, all trying to save him. He owed it to them to make it to the Colony. He felt wobbly from his wound and also from all the antibiotics in his system.

He stumbled towards the Colony. He was nearing it, about half a mile until he would be there. He fell on his hands and knees and crawled the distance. He reached the Colony after days of walking, fighting to survive, and seeing his friends die in front of him he made it. He made it to the Destroyed Colony of Akuze.

He stumbled forth through the Colony moving to the middle of the rubble searching for where they would have kept their comm links. He finally found it! He tried to pick someone up on the signal, no response so far. "Keelah! Come on you bosh'tet. He said aloud. He heard someone's voice through the static. "Pioneer Team 62849 is that you?"

"The Pioneer Team is dead, so is the Marine Teams, I'm the only survivor." He said through the comm.

"We will have a ship pick you up, ETA 10 minutes."

The next 10 minutes were terrible for John. Infection started to set in, he had trouble keeping himself awake because the loss of blood. His vision was bad he was OD on medicine. He collapsed onto the ground. 'I am not going to die now, not after all I went through!' he said to himself. He blacked out.

The ship arrived at the Colony of Akuze the SSV Fidelity, Medical teams rushed to the only thing in sight. A Quarian. They rushed over to him and noticed the slash across his chest, and his cracked black tinted visor. He awoke as they carried him aboard the Fidelity. They rested him on a Gurney in the Medical Bay. He blacked out again.

* * *

><p>He awoke to see a doctor hanging over him. He reached down to his chest and felt the suit rip still there but no more blood. He felt through the rip. They had repaired the thin suit that was his last line of defense from infection. Only the fabric and armor of the suit had a long deep cut through it. He felt his visor and still felt the crack there. The doctor noticed that he started to move, "He is awake, Sir."<p>

A man moved across to him.

"How long was I out?" he asked.

"5 Days, you are lucky the infection was serious but, Thanks to our top notch doctor here, Doctor Chakwas..." The doctor gave a curt nod "We were able to save you."

"Ah, Thanks."

"We could fix your suit if you like." The Doctor Chakwas added.

"Uh, no thank you." He replied back.

The man moved closer to him gripping his shoulder. "What is your name, Son?"

"John'Shepard nar Rayya. And yours?"

"Admiral Steven Hackett, Alliance Navy. You went in with the Marine team?" John gave him a nod. "And there were no survivors?"

"No." he replied.

"That is a terrible misfortune, you deserve a medal for surviving... this horrific massacre. We retrieved a vid from a helmet of a marine of you killing that Thresher Maw. From the inside. That is a great feat, especially for your age."

"You know how old I am."

"Not really, but estimating you are in your teens."

"16" He said

"Ah, and the Marines let you join them in this mission?"

"Well, yes."

"I see."

"We are going by the Citadel, would it be Ok if we dropped you off there?"

He nodded.

"Great, get some rest before we get to the Citadel."

He obeyed, hoping that the haunting images did not come into his dreams. But he was wrong.

* * *

><p>Tali walked across the Citadel and pass a news terminal. She paused by it to hear what the woman was saying. "Massacre on Akuze, 50 Marines sent in only 1 comes out, but he never was a Marine in the first place. He was a 16 year old Quarian, He goes by the name John'Shepard nar Rayya. We have also recieved classified vids from Alliance Admiral Steven Hackett, of him taking down a Thresher Maw. We have been notified that he has recieved many suit punctures but at the moment is fine. Hope for a speedy recovery for this Sole Survivor, John'Shepard nar Rayya."<p>

Tali nearly fainted when she heard his name. So he is still alive! Happiness flooding into her.


	8. Eden Prime

Here we go, time to get in to the Mass Effect story line, took a while to get to it but we are finally there. Just want to clarify somethings that came up in the reviews. The timeline is meant to be like this, it fits better than other things. And the shotgun, it actually is mostly used by Krogan for the kickback, so I had to think of something fast and one thing came to mind, recoil reducer? They are in the future. Without further a due Chapter 8.

**Chapter 8: Eden Prime  
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><p><strong>5 Years after Akuze.<br>**

21 Year old Quarian, John'Shepard nar Rayya waited on a cluster of rocks hidden in the trees. He had heard about the Prothean Beacon on Eden Prime, he was extremely curious so he smuggled himself onto a transport ship going to Eden Prime. In their arrival they had seen a massive ship, with tentacles. Probably dreadnought class. Around the time the ship arrived the attack started, he saw a strange looking Turian wander around, many injection tubes in his body. He had a different head fringe than most Turians had, he was searching for something, supposedly the Beacon. It has become known that he was the one who brought the Dreadnought. John had seen him going around with Geth and slaughtering many of the people in Eden Prime. This was what puzzled him, the geth, they are known to stay behind the Perseus Veil, and not known to travel outside of the Veil. To add to the mystery, following an organic?

He was taken by surprise because this... conflict was unexpected. But he was ready, over the 5 Years he had been searching for the Migrant Fleet and more importantly his friend Tali, he had learned different fighting positions and stances, and how to harness his Biotic ability. His suit was the same one he wore to Akuze, but slightly bigger because he had grown over the course of 5 years. It still had the tear across the torso, but it was just over the fabric and armor. He still had the crack over his visor, constant reminder of Akuze. He did not want to forget his friends that sacrificed themselves for him. He had not been able to get one good nights rest since the Akuze incident. The Marines who fell haunted his dreams ever since.

While he had been searching the galaxy he also had learned more of his people's history. He had learned that they lived in very tight knit groups on their home world of Rannoch, competing for water and food with other creatures across the arid land. He had adopted the stealth of the original Quarian hunter. He preferred to use knives instead of guns, for they had the bad ability of overheating. But nevertheless he kept with him a cheap Raikou IV pistol made by Ariake Technologies, he also kept with him a used Batarian State Arms Terminator Assault Rifle I. Very inaccurate and overheats very quickly. If he has to use a ranged weapon he would use his pistol. He also had the same knife as the one he used before and at Akuze, very handy, he had a wide collection of knives. Throwing to Stabbing knives, Small and Big knives. What the knife did, did not matter to him, but what he can do with it mattered. In his travels he visited the Salarian home world Sur'Kesh, and he learned from Salarian Infiltrators, how to actually cloak himself. But this did not come easily, he had to make many changes to his Omnitool to make this happen. Visiting the Turian home world, Palaven he had learned how to harness his biotic abilities from Turian Biotics. He had also went to the Human home world, Earth he had learned something there also, it was something called the OmniCondom. He did not quite understand it at first, but it dawned on him. When he recieved this gift, it was not as rewarding as Cloaking himself or his new Biotic abilities.

He sat watching the funny looking dreadnaught, it had developed large amounts of Dark Energy and Electricity around it's tentacles, he found this out by his readings. It was quite amazing even if the ship was destroying the colony with it's power. Red, Orange and black was filled in the air from the bombs exploding the smoke filling the air. Whatever they attempted on the dreadnought did not effect it in the slightest. He had seen some spikes with humans impaled on them. Quite awkward. He twirled his knife in his hands. He had not been forced to fight any geth, yet. Quite luckily for him while the Geth had been distracted he managed to save a few colonists and hide them away from the geth. When he arrived at this world, it had been beautiful even if it was a human colony. He had never been the same towards humans after Cerberus. He found them obnoxious at points. And they were expanding rapidly throughout the systems. And were granted a embassy at the Citadel when the Quarians were denied. He understood the Citadel slightly because the Quarians did have a major battle with the geth, but ended up forcing the Quarians to become exiled from their home world and making them wander space in hopes for finding a suitable world for them. 300 years had gone by and they had found nothing but hate from the galaxy. He had spent 5 years trying to find them, but like the Quarian's search for a new home world, he was unsuccessful but one day he knew he was going to rejoin himself to the Fleet. And maybe finally becoming a "vas" to a ship and the Captain of the ship. But right now he was John'Shepard vas Tasi(no one) nar Rayya.

He changed his position on the rocks as a new ship came down, judging by the marks on it's side it was Alliance. The ship's name was imprinted on the side SSV Normandy. 4 People had left the ship, then the ship sped off into space. 3 Humans, One Turian. He activated his omnitool moving his fingers quickly over it. He had hacked into their comm channel.

"Commander Dawson, I'm sorry Alenko could not come with you, he has quite an injury. But we did send Hawthorne with you." A Voice said, a voice that he remembered from 5 years ago, it sounded like the Doctor that had patched him up after Akuze. He remembered back to when he woke up to the Doctor. It was Doctor Chakwas!

"It's alright Doctor, I have an able bodied ground team, we will be fine." They cut comms.

The Turian said into their private channel, "I like your reaction to when you found out your best squad mate could not come with you. You handled it very good."

"Yeah, are you going to be coming with us, Nihlus?"

"No, I'm faster on my own." He said as he ran off into the distance.

John stood up from his hidden position, he watched as the 3 humans started to walk off. He ran across the rocks, and clambered up a different set of rocks, giving him an overview of their location. He continued to stalk them as they moved forward.

"What are those?" One human cried out.

"Gasbags, they are harmless." They continued walking forward. He watched them as they continued walking, they came to a stop at a turn. What he presumed was the commanding officer, settled himself down by the turn, he peered out. Seeing it was clear he motioned for one human to go forth. John watched as the first human moved from cover and moved out into the open. A swarm of recon drones appeared shooting down the human that moved from cover. It tore straight through his shields, he noticed that the humans were ill prepared for the Geth. The Commander moved from cover, trying to get to cover. A fools move as he was quickly shot down with the first human. The last human cowered behind the turn, the Geth Drones slowly approached, he came out of cover, firing from the hip. He was shot down quickly also, John watched as most of the Drones started moving away. He used his Stasis on one that strayed a little to far from the group and a little too close to the rocks. He moved forward to the edge of the rocks and jumped forward on top of the Recon Drone. His fingers quickly moved over the Drone, dismantling it he quickly extracted the drive core, most of it intact. He moved his omnitool over it, his armor recieved an upgrade against geth pulse rifles, he also found a voice message in it. He played it.

"Sovereign and I have come to this planet a day ago, I have recieved the trust of the colonists because of my Spectre Status. Sovereign and I have been searching for this Prothean Beacon, he says it will lead us to the Conduit." The voice recording ending. It left John confused he ran it threw his head. The Beacon. The Conduit. Sovereign. All these things went together. John stored the drive core in one of his suit's pockets. He climbed the rocks leading back up atop of the hill. He followed along the sides of the rocks looking for any Geth or Survivors. He walked on for a while, seeing Geth Recon Drones, but they did not see him, he left it that way. He continued to walk atop of the hill. He looked down and a male human being impaled on a large... spike as a Human female retreating from geth drones with a few Geth Troopers behind them. She tripped and in a swift motion turned, then took out 2 drones. She retreated behind a large rock. John watched on as she continued to fight the geth. He saw a Geth Rocket Trooper walk up from a distance, it aimed at the rock where the human female was behind. He fired a rocket that caused the large rock to collapse sending the human flying off. She was knocked unconscious from the blast. A two geth troopers walked up and seized her from under her arms and walked to the closest spike. That was when he reacted, he cloaked himself and moved down the rocks towards the two geth. He took out his pistol and his knife. He was almost to the geth. The Geth were almost to the spike. He ran forth closing the distance, he grabbed one Geth from behind uncloaking himself as he did it. He put the knife up to the circuitry where the neck was suppose to be. He shot the other geth holding her arm, she collapsed to the ground, still knocked out. The remaining geth turned he swiftly shot one in the head, it's "blood" splattered as the bullet impacted it's head. He continued to shoot the remaining Geth, while using the same Geth Trooper as a robotic shield. Most of the Geth were dead, all that was left was the Rocket Trooper. It shot it's rocket at John he quickly dived out of the way and left the Geth Trooper he used as a shield behind. The rocket impacted the Geth Trooper he used as a shield, he exploded his metal parts going everywhere. John cloaked himself as the disorientating blast from the rocket happened. The Geth Rocket Trooper swiveled it's flashlight head around, searching for him. He crept up from behind, knife in hand he grabbed the the Rocket Trooper from behind and ran his knife across the circuitry at it's neck. It's "hands" grabbed at the circuitry at his neck trying to stop the steady flow of white "blood" coming from the circuitry at it's neck. A few sparks and the Geth went down like all the others.

He ran towards the fallen human, rolling her over on her back did a quick scan of her body, from the scans it showed she had suffered no major injuries. He attempted to regain her consciousness but failed. He put her over his shoulder and continued walking forward. She weighed a lot more than she looked, but no matter he continued to carry her. From the Human's comm channel he heard a voice wring out. "Commander, I have seen a spaceport up ahead meet me there if you can."

The Turian still had no idea that the Commander and his squad was dead. He reached the dig sight he saw before. The beacon was not there, it must have been moved, either by the Humans or the Geth. He ran forward up the hill towards the spaceport he saw before. He planned to meet this Turian. He reached the top of the hill, he saw more humans impaled on spikes...but they were different they looked... terrible. The geth had turned them into some synthetic zombie like monster. The spikes retracted as he walked by. The "husks" as they appeared hopped off the spikes and ran towards him. He panicked as he saw them running towards him, he regained his composure and pulled his pistol out again. With one hand holding the human and one holding his pistol, he managed to shoot each one of these "husks". He walked towards them and kicked it with his boot. He would have to look into this more after he gets off this planet. He bent down and took a tissue and DNA sample. He stood back up and walked towards the path to the spaceport. He saw in the distance, two Turians. He used his visor's zooming ability and he saw the Turian 'Nihlus' that came in with the Humans. He appeared to let his guard down and the other was... reaching for his pistol. Without time to react John drew one of his many knives from a pouch on his arm. He steadied the knife in his hand, he worked at this skill many times over the course of 5 years. He aimed it towards the Turian that drew his pistol. He used his biotics to zoom the knife towards the Turian.

"ARRGH!" Saren yelled out as the knife impaled itself into his shoulder causing him to miss his shot. Nihlus quickly turned around to see what caused the gunshot. He saw Saren holding a pistol in his direction, he quickly dived behind cover.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, SAREN?" Nihlus yelled out from behind cover. Saren did not reply as threw the knife out of his shoulder onto the ground and ran off towards the cargo train gripping his shoulder. The train reached the other platform where the beacon was. He ran towards the beacon.

"ACTIVATE THE BOMBS!" He yelled at the Geth. They quickly obeyed him activating the bombs. He ran towards the beacon, then was pulled in by a invisible force. Images shot threw his mind he understood what Sovereign was looking for and why. He impacted the ground landing down on one knee. He stood up and ran towards Sovereign, quickly boarding.

Nihlus looked up as he saw the massive ship starting to leave. He looked back to the single knife that had saved his life. He picked it up, studying the trajectory of the knife he noticed that it came from the hill in the distance. He looked towards the Hill and saw a Quarian, carrying something over it's shoulder. He could not tell from this distance. He gripped his assault rifle in his hand a little tighter. John continued to approach him, he finally reached him.

"Nihlus." He put the Human down on the ground.

"How do you know my name?" Nihlus replied suspiciously.

John held out his hand, Nihlus handed him the knife he took it from Nihlus's hands and stored it away in one of his knife pouches. John stretched his muscles before replying to Nihlus's question. "I hacked into your comm channel with the Humans."

"Ah, do you know what become of them?"

"I saw them all die by Geth Drones."

"And you didn't do anything to save them?"

" I COULD not do anything at the time!" He replied viciously. "And what of you? Letting your guard like that?"

"I knew that Turian." He paused stowing his assault rifle away. "He is Saren, one of the best Spectres there is. His actions have surprised me he has never acted like this before. He was a friend to me and a fellow Spectre, his actions are despicable. The Council will not be pleased of this." He looked questioningly at the John. "Who are you?"

"John'Shepard nar Rayya. Quarian, as you can see." He shook his head as he heard this news from Nihlus. "The Council is more pitiful then I suspected, your little friend, Saren has been hiding behind his Spectre status the whole time."

"And what proof do you have of this?" He folded his arms across his chest.

John took out the drive core of the Geth, he activated it with his omnitool. "Sovereign and I have come to this planet a day ago, I have recieved the trust of the colonists because of my Spectre Status. Sovereign and I have been searching for this Prothean Beacon, he says it will lead us to the Conduit."

Nihlus brought his hand up to his chin. "So Saren is going rogue." He pondered the recording for a few more seconds. "Who is this Sovereign that is on the recording?"

"No idea."

Something behind the boxes began to move. John reacting first drawing his knife and moving towards the box. He reached over it and grabbed something, he yanked it over the box. The thing landed on it's back, John's knife an inch away from his throat.

"Don't kill me!" It yelled out "I'm human!"

John loosened his grip on the Human. He stuck the knife back down into his boot sheathe. He grabbed the Human under the arms and yanked him up on his feet.

"What is wrong with you? Sneaking up on us like that? You nearly got yourself killed." John thought of this Human's stupidity. His mind suddenly flashed into anger at this human. He calmed himself back down.

"I'm- I'm sorry." He stuttered "My name is Powell, I was hiding behind the crates from the- the geth." He fidgeted around.

"Why didn't anyone else hide behind the crates?" Nihlus asked inquisitorially.

"I was behind the crates when- when the attack started." He fidgeted more than ever. "I sometimes get tired during my shift and hide behind the crates and take 40 winks."

"Laziness saved your life, human." Nihlus shook his head after hearing this.

"Don't make me feel worse than I already feel." He ran off.

John grew tired of sitting around "Alright, Nihlus we are getting nowhere by just standing here. We might as well get moving towards the direction Saren moved towards." Nihlus nodded in agreement. John picked the female human back up onto his shoulders and they both moved towards the cargo train that led to the other platform. After a short ride without conversation they reached the other side. After coming off of the Cargo Train they saw a Demolition Charge. Their omnitools beeped as they picked up the locations of all of the demolition charges.

"Cover me as I deactivate them!" He said to Nihlus. Nihlus only nodded.

He moved forward and set the Human down then reached for first bomb, his hands moving surprisingly fast across the charge's control panel. Deactivating it in under 4 seconds. He picked the Human back up and motioned to Nihlus, Nihlus and John moved up the ramp. Nihlus took the lead as they crouch ran across the bridge, avoiding the Geth's fire. They reached the second charge, John put the human back down on the ground. While Nihlus stood behind cover firing his assault rifle at the Geth, knocking them down one by one. John's fingers moved faster across this charge, faster than the first one, defusing it in under 3 seconds. He picked the Human back up and motioned for Nihlus to move up. He moved up to the next bomb, holding the Geth off. John set the human down once again and moved his fingers across the charge, beating his first 2 times he deactivated it in under 2 seconds. He picked the human up once again, they both moved for the last bomb without any resistance, most of the Geth had been shot down by Nihlus. He deactivated it with one hand, holding the human with the other. He deactivated it in under 2 seconds with one hand. They both moved forward towards the beacon, only 2 husks and a geth protecting it, Nihlus quickly shot all 3 of them down.

"Pretty good... for a Turian." He said jokingly as he set the Human down. Nihlus's mandibles moved in the equivalent of a smile. Nihlus did not usually approve of this type of humor.

The Human started stirring as she regain consciousness. She sat up and saw Nihlus and John. She moved to her feet. She eyed Nihlus and John suspiciously. "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212, I'm guessing you are the one in charge?"

Nihlus nodded. "Spectre Nihlus Kryik."

"John'Shepard nar Rayya."

"A Spectre? And a Quarian?"

They both nodded.

"I'm guessing you are the ones who saved me from the Geth?"

Nihlus pointed a finger to John. "He saved you, not I."

"So looks like I owe you, Shepard."

"That was out of good nature, the next one will cost you." Ashley could not tell if he was serious or if he was joking.

She moved forward to the beacon, moving around it examining it, she was suddenly pulled in, John was the first to react he ran forward and pushed her out of the beacon, but causing himself to be pulled in. Nihlus helped Ashley to her feet and they both stared at John.

John fought with all his muscles and will to fight the beam's pull, he was pulled in against his will and lifted off the ground. In seconds, he started hearing voices. They screamed in his ear, in his head. Every nerve in his body tensed as the language slowly shifted from Alien to Khelish and to the Common Trade language two languages he knew. What felt like an hour of pain, was actually half a second, as another wave hit him like a volley of sharp objects. He gritted his teeth together as the pain began to fill his head and body, the voices becoming more intense, screams, yells, pain that was disorientating. He couldn't move his body an inch his eyes popped open as the force pressing against his body grew to an very high level. He couldn't bring himself to breath or close his eyes. A series of disturbing, images flickered across his brain as if they were dreams. Showing entire races obliterated, entire galaxies being destroyed by these... things.

The beacon exploded sending him backwards against the ground. He lay there fighting to remain conscious but he failed, he eventually lost his consciousness.

Ashley ran over to him to examine him, this was her fault she ran through her mind. Nihlus stayed where he was. He called to the Normandy.

"Flight Lieutenant Monroe we need evac, the beacon is destroyed, and the Commander and his squad is dead. We have two new packages for the Normandy." He called out into the comm connecting him with the Normandy.

"Alright, ETA 2 Minutes." Joker replied as he started to go towards their location.


	9. After Eden Prime

A few changes in the main story, Nihlus living, Human Commander's team dies. Nothing too major relatively short chapter.

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><p>John'Shepard nar Rayya lay on a bed in the Med bay in the SR-1 Normandy, in the med bay. Nihlus and Ashley hung over him waiting for him to awake, Ashley still was not sure if she trusted this Quarian, or the Turian, even if they had saved her life. It did not add up at all why a Quarian was working with a Turian Spectre, or why the Quarian had saved her life. If the Turian had told her right, the Quarian had biotic abilities. She had never heard of a Quarian that had biotics. She had also heard from the Turian that 3 Humans were on the mission also, Jenkins, Commander Dawson, and Hawthorne. They had all died on Eden Prime.<p>

Nihlus and Ashley turned their heads as Doctor Chakwas walked in. She did a brief scan of him and went over to her computer to log it in.

"Whats wrong with him Doc?" Ashley looked to Chakwas.

"He is still knocked cold, but I am detecting some unusual brain activity, abnormal beta waves." She continued typing at her console.

Ashley looked back to John, and saw a flicker behind his mask. A flicker of light coming from his eyes.

"Doctor! Doctor Chakwas! I think he is waking!" She stood up from her seat to get a better look.

Doctor Chakwas stopped her typing, and walked towards the bed as John rose from his laying position.

"Gave us quite a scare there, Shepard how are you feeling?" She said as she stopped in front of him.

"Doctor...? Chakwas...? I remember you." He said as he touched his two of his 3 fingers to his head. "How long was I out?"

"About 15 hours, something happened with the beacon, I think."

"It's my fault, I must have triggered some kind of security field when I approached it. You had to push me out of the way." She confessed.

"You had no idea what was going to happen, and it's just another time I saved your life." He grinned behind his visor.

Ashley raised her eyebrow at this statement.

"Actually we don't even know if that was what set it off. Unfortunately, we'll never get the chance to find out."

"The Beacon exploded system overload, maybe the blast knocked you cold, Me and Nihlus had to carry you to the Normandy."

Nihlus looked up at the mention of his name, then stared at John. "Did anything happen when you were pulled in by the Beacon?"

John paused before answering, gathering himself. "I saw.. death, destruction, none of it was really clear. I heard voices screaming into my ear, yelling inside my mind. They were speaking in multiple languages, I did catch a few words from them." He paused for dramatic effect. "Total Destruction."

"Interesting." Nihlus said.

"Physically, you are fine but I detected some unusual brain activity, abnormal beta waves." She paused. "I also noticed an increase in your rapid eye movement, probably from the vision you had."

He nodded in acknowledgement.

"I better add this to my report." She walked towards her console. " It may- Oh, Captain Anderson."

"How's the Quarian holding up, Doctor?"

John hated it when people called him Quarian instead of his name.

"All the readings look normal, I'd say the he is going to be fine."

"Glad to hear it, I would like to speak to you- in private." He directed the message towards John.

Ashley and Nihlus picked up on what the Captain wanted.

Ashley saluted Anderson "Aye, Aye, Captain. I'll be in the mess if you need me."

Nihlus walked forward. "Captain." He nodded and walked out of the med bay. Doctor Chakwas followed them out.

"Sounds like that beacon hit you pretty hard..." He paused.

"John'Shepard nar Rayya." John stated.

"Sounds like that beacon hit you pretty hard, Shepard. Are you sure you are fine?" He finished his sentence.

"I'll live." He responded to him.

"I won't lie to you, Shepard. Things look bad, the Commander is dead, the Beacon is destroyed, The Geth info you extracted about Saren. And the geth, The Council is going to want answers, Shepard." He folded his arms around his chest.

"Yeah, well I took out half the Geth single handily and almost got that bosh'tet, Saren and saved multiple lives, including Nihlus's and Ashley's. Your whole mission would have gone to hell if I was not there. There are your answers."

"I'll stand behind anything you say, if you decide to come with us to tell the Council. You are a damned hero in my books, I looked into your file, Akuze, Mindoir. But that is not why I am here. Saren, that other Turian." He paused. "Saren is a Spectre, A living legend. But if he is working with this Sovereign and the Geth, that means he has gone rogue. A rogue Spectre is trouble. Saren's dangerous and he hates Humans."

"Why should I care if he hates Humans?" He sat down against the bed in the med bay.

"He hates Quarians just as much as he hates Humans. He thinks both of them are the scum of the galaxy."

"He didn't come to Eden Prime just because he hates Humans. From the audio file I extracted from the Geth it says he has come for something much more. Something called the Conduit."

"You're right. Saren has allied himself with the Geth and this Sovereign. I don't know how, I don't know why. But it had something to do with the beacon. You were there before that beacon self-destructed, did you see anything? Any clue to tell us what Saren is after besides the Conduit?" He put his hand to his chin.

"A vision, just before I lost consciousness."

"A vision? What kind?"

"Of war of total destruction."

"We need to report this to the Council, Shepard." His tone became very serious.

"And what are we going to tell them, I had a bad dream?" He said sarcastically. "Besides I don't deal with the Council anymore."

"I know Saren, his reputation, his politics. He believes that Humans and Quarians are the blight of the Galaxy he won't stop until he wipes them both off the face of the galaxy."

"This just became serious." He said as he cracked his knuckles. "I will take him down."

"It's not that easy. He's a Spectre, he can go anywhere and do almost anything. That's why we need the Council on our side."

"We prove he has gone Rogue, the Council revokes his Spectre status, I take him down, then I am done with the Council." He stood up from the bed.

"I will contact the Ambassador, and I will try to get him to get us a audience with the Council. He'll want to see us once we reach the Citadel. It will take us a few hours, you might want to get some rest before we get there."

John walked out of the Med bay, almost all of the crew in the Mess Hall turned to him. He ignored them and walked to the Crew Quarters. He climbed into a pod, identical to the one he used 5 years ago on the ship that took him to Akuze. The hatch closed and he drifted off to sleep.

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><p>The Illusive Man sat in his chair, smoking a cigarette, and drinking a little Brandy. He watched the same dying sun he has been watching over the course of 5 years. He was lost in his thoughts. He had heard about the incident on Eden Prime. About Saren, about the Prothean beacon and more importantly about a Quarian. A Biotic Quarian. John'Shepard nar Rayya. The same one they had experimented on 5 years ago. He would send his own operatives to investigate this matter, but they had more important things. He has hired 3 Mercenary groups to bring him back, Dead or Alive. It did not matter, they could test him either way. Eclipse, Blue Suns and Blood Pack. All petty little mercenary groups he held in his palm.<p>

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><p>Tali watched out of the window of a Transport Ship as she neared a planet. This planet had reports of Geth on it. She was curious to find out why the Geth were out of the Perseus Veil. She even hoped to send some parts back to her father. He has always been interested in Geth, so has Daro'Xen, but she prefers active geth. If she found something valuable she could maybe contact the Shadow Broker to help her find her friend she has been searching for, for 5 years.<p>

The Transport Ship closed in on the planet, it had no docking port, or any good place to land. This world was uncivilized, containing no colonies or anything of the sort. Only a few people were coming to this world with her, mostly people who wanted to see the sights of a new world. The Transport Ship touched down to the ground, opening the door to the new world. A few people on the ship had set up a touring guide. They were going to look around this world camp for one night, then head immediately back to the Citadel.

The people going on the tour guide grouped up next to each other and filed off the ship. Tali watched as they started walking off into the jungle of trees. She walked in the opposite direction the tour guide had walked in. She walked through the hot and humid jungle, hearing the chatter of animals she never heard of before. She continued walking, she came to a large cliff that could give her an overview of the area. She doubled around back and found a hill leading up to it. She climbed the hill and reached the cliff. She could see the whole area around her. Perfect for spotting Geth. She decided to set her camp here.

**4 Hours Later**

It was now sundown and no sign of Geth yet. She continued to scan over the area with her eyes. Nothing. In a few hours it would be too dark to look for them. That was when she heard a rustling off to the side. She narrowed her eyes to the place that had made the sound. The bush moved again. Out came a Geth, a Geth with black metal and a flashlight head. So the rumors were true! The Geth did leave the Perseus Veil. She crept back down the hill avoiding anything that would cause her to make noise. She moved forward avoiding bushes and plants. She saw the Geth in a clearing in front of her. She took a deep breath and steadied herself. She had prepared for this for a long time. She raised her Omnitool at the Geth, and began to override. The occasional sparks bursting from it. She managed to paralyze it. She walked up to it, she remembered back to her Geth class on the Rayya. Their teacher had shown them how to dismantle a Geth, told them what parts are what. John and Tali had been the best in the class. She started to dismantle it, she faltered once as she struggled to remember. 'Do you take out the transmission core chip out before the motherboard?' She had come to a conclusion to take out the transmission core chip out before, she had been correct but that one second she took to think had cost her. She had been able to get the drive core out, but the Geth had already started to destroy it only leaving her with half of it.

She activated her omnitool opening an audio file stored inside of it.

"Eden Prime was a major victory. The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit!"

Another feminine voice said "And one step closer to the return of the Reapers!"

The Reapers? This information had to be valuable maybe She could sell it to the Shadow Broker! She stored the audio file in her omnitool. She ran back to the Transport Ship, she sat down in one of the seats. Tomorrow she will be off to the Citadel and she would be one step closer to finding John!


	10. Citadel

I have done a few changes to chapter 1 and chapter 2. I decided that most of chapter 1 was irrelevant to the story so I got rid of it and put in a foreword. I put the most important parts on chapter 1 into chapter 2 at the beginning. With that out of the way, I am going to start playing the Mass Effect Series again despite the ending of Mass Effect 3. I need to refresh my memory on all of it, videos will not cut it. Hopefully the area around our characters becomes more detailed as we move into the Citadel. Sorry for a late update.

**Chapter 10: Citadel**

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><p>John woke up in the sleeping pod. He activated the covering hatch to open, it slowly rose revealing to him the Crew's Quarters of the Normandy. He put one foot out groggily and steadied himself against the pod's side. He moved his other foot out until he was completely out of the sleeping pod. It felt as he had not slept at all, for 5 years Akuze has been haunting him every single night, he now had another bad memory to add to his dreams. The Vision. Entire races being killed by these synthetics, this increased his hatred towards the geth. The synthetics he saw in his vision could be geth, for the geth was with Saren on Eden Prime. He continued his train of thought as he moved out of the Crew's Quarters into the Mess Hall. He ignored the stares and whispers of the crew around him in the Mess, their opinions of him would not phase him in the slightest. He moved towards the Normandy's Mess Sergeant for food. As the Mess Sergeant saw him he started to search the cupboards around him, reaching into the very back of one and grabbing a tube of flavorless nutrient paste. He brushed the cobwebs off of it and handed it to John. John took it, for he was in no position to complain and moved to the table furthest away from everyone and sat down. A few minutes into eating his paste, a human walks up to him. John looked up to see the human better, he saw a face with the hints of a mustache coming up on it and black hair. The human continued walking to him and stopped only to sit down to the seat opposite of John.<p>

"Hello, you must be new I have not seen you around."

"Yes."He nearly laughed at the Human's stupidity of course he was new, have you ever seen a Quarian on the Normandy?

"I'm Kaidan Alenko. Nice to meet you."

"Ah, you are the human that was suppose to be on the original ground team with the human Commander."

"Yeah... got sick during the final stages of the mission. Major migraine I could barely move at all. I get them a lot with because of my L2 implants."

John thought to himself, 'L2 implants, petty.'

"Hey, I heard you were a Biotic too. Is that true?"

John lifted his finger and the empty tube of nutrient paste rose into the air, he put his finger back down, the nutrient paste fell back to the table.

"So it is true. Well it was nice to meet you ..." He paused because John had never told him his name.

"John'Shepard nar Rayya."

"Shepard... Shepard, I heard that name before are you the same Quarian that was on Akuze?"

As Kaidan said 'Akuze' a series of memories flashed through John's head. His team dead. 49 dead. The Thresher Maw. The Destroyed Colony. The Desert. The Crash. Dismembered bodies. He snapped out of his flashback.

"Ye- Yeah, I am." He struggled to say as he tried to bury the memories in the back of his head.

"You were pretty lucky, 50 people go in, only 1 come out. And you took down a Thresher Maw that destroyed your whole squad, trekked your way through a desert filled with Thresher Maws. And then was rescued by the Alliance."

John flinched as Kaidan said this. The faces of the Marines appeared before him, young faces, they had a whole future ahead of them but were unknown to the dangers that would await them. As fast as they came that had went burning their faces' into John's mind.

He stood up abruptly from the table, and ran from the Mess. The memories were to painful to bare. He ran into the Bathroom. It was empty. The memories came on stronger has he entered the bathroom he curled his 3 fingers into a fist. He ran towards the sink and rested his hands on the counter. He looked into the mirror. He was horrified by what he saw. The faces of the Marines were lined up behind him. He turned, nothing was there. He turned back to the mirror. Nothing there. He repeated in his mind 'Nothing but an illusion, trick of the visor. Just my mind playing tricks on me.' He sagged his head down facing the counter. He finally had the courage to look back up. They were there again. He balled his hand into a fist and punched the mirror with all his force, shattering it. He drew a knife from his side and stabbed it into the counter. He repeated this 3 times. He pulled the knife out from the counter, he fell into the corner of the room. He rested his back against the wall and pulled his legs to his chest, then gripped both sides of his helmet. "Leave me ALONE!" He screamed. "Leave me alone."

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><p>He regained his composure after a while of silent thinking, or in his case not too silent. He walked across the Normandy, studying it's features, he hadn't taken notice of. Very impressive. He especially liked the Drive Core. This ship was much better than many ships in the Migrant Fleet. Tali would love this, she always had a love for ships. As he was wandering around the ship he ran into Captain Anderson.<p>

He put out a hand to stop John from walking off."We should be approaching the Citadel now, if you don't mind could you tell Joker to pull us into dock?"

"Joker?"

"Our ship's pilot. Jeff you could say."

"Alright, I will do it now."

He walked towards the cockpit, A bald man stared at him menacingly, John returned the stare. The man turned away. Ever since John had boarded the Normandy he had been watching him. He thought for a moment. His name was Pressly. He was a common Human xenophobe. He continued on to the cockpit.

"Captain Anderson said to bring us into dock."

"Uh, Alright... Quarian."

John looked to his side an saw Kaidan from before, he was focused on his console, he didn't pay any attention to John. John moved to the window and looked out, he saw the massive Citadel and a huge dreadnought class ship.

He pressed his visor to the glass. "Look at the size of that ship!"

"The Ascension. Flag Ship of the Citadel fleet." Kaidan spoke up.

"Well size isn't everything."

Kaidan moved to the window"Why so touchy, Joker?"

"I'm just saying you need firepower too."

"Hah." John chuckled. "It's main gun can rip through any ship in the Alliance fleet."

"Good thing it is on our side then." Kaidan added.

"Citadel Control, This is the SSV Normandy requesting permission to land." Joker ended the conversation.

"Stand by for clearance, Normandy." Citadel Control paused for a second. "Clearance granted. You may begin your approach. Transferring you to an Alliance Operator."

"Roger, Alliance Tower Normandy out."

"Normandy, this is Alliance Tower, proceed to dock 422."

They flew into the docking area. The familiar sounds of magnetic clamps clamped down on the Normandy's wings preventing it from flying away. The docking tube extended to the Normandy allowing them to leave the ship.

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><p>John sat at a table, Ashley and Nihlus were at the edge looking out over the Presidium. Udina continued to flare at the Council.<p>

"THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!" He yelled. "THE COUNCIL WOULD STEP IN IF THE GETH ATTACKED A TURIAN COLONY!"

The Salarian Councillor spoke clear and calm. "The Turians don't found colonies on the borders of the Terminus Systems, Ambassador."

Once the Salarian Councillor finished speaking the Asari began almost momentarily. "Humanity was well aware of the risks when you went into the Traverse."

Udina cooled himself down. "What about Saren? You can't just ignore a rogue Spectre. I DEMAND ACTION!"

"You don't get to make demands of the Council, Ambassador." The Turian Councillor replied angrily.

"Citadel Security is investigating your charges against Saren. We will discuss the findings of your... friend and of C-Sec at the hearing. Not before." With that statement they all disappeared from their holographic projectors. Udina walked towards Captain Anderson.

"Captain Anderson, I see you brought half of your crew and a Quarian."

"Just the people that were on Eden Prime. In case you had any questions."

"What makes you think the Quarian isn't lying about being on Eden Prime?"

"Udina, we had this conversation before. He saved Nihlus's and Ashley's lives he also got the information on Saren." He paused for a moment. "Sounds like you got the Council to grant you an audience."

"They were not happy about it, Saren's their top agent. They don't like him being accused of treason."

"They can't ignore the information I found on Eden Prime!" John stood from his seat at the table.

"Settle down, Quarian. You have done enough! Destroying the Beacon!"

"That's Saren's fault not his!"

"Then you better hope the investigations turn up to support our accusations. The word of a Quarian isn't worth much around here."

"I will show you how much a Quarian fist in your face is worth around here if you call me Quarian ONE more time!"

"Come with me Captain. I want to go over a few things before the hearing." Udina quickly walked off.

"And that is why I hate politicians." Ashley said.

They followed John as he walked out of the room. He continued walking down where he saw a holographic projection of Avina. He walked pasted her moved to the edge and looked out over the Citadel.

'What a waste of space and resources.' He said to himself.

He turned to Nihlus and Ashley. "An hour until the hearing, so an hour of free time do what you want."

He walked off, he knew what he was going to do. Time to get some weapons.

He bumped into a few people, stealing their credits without them noticing. He smiled as he walked to the many weapon stores on the Citadel.

**45 Minutes Later...**

Ashley, Nihlus, and John met back up where they dispersed. Both Nihlus and Ashley noticed John had different weapons, and in better state.

"Where did you get those?" Ashley asked. "Never mind I don't want to know."

Nihlus only nodded, the 3 of them set off for the Citadel Hearing. They moved quickly through the Presidium towards the elevator. They all climbed in the elevator and pressed the button for Citadel Tower. The elevator slowly moved, they were all silent the only noise in the elevator was it's music. John tapped his foot against the floor of the elevator impatiently. 'Elevators these days...' The elevator came to a stop, the doors of the elevator slid open revealing to them the Citadel Tower. They came to a stop as they saw two Turians arguing.

"Saren's hiding something! Give me more time. Stall them!" A younger Turian said.

"Stall the Council? Don't be ridiculous! Your investigation is over, Garrus." The older Turian walked away.

The younger Turian "Garrus" turned to them. "A Quarian in the Citadel Tower... you must be Shepard." He extended his hand. "Garrus Vakarian. I was in charge of the C-Sec investigation into Saren."

John took his hand and shook it. "Did you find anything on Saren I should know about?"

"Saren's a Spectre. Almost everything he touches is classified. I couldn't find anything solid besides your information you extracted from a Geth. But I know he is up to something. Like the Humans say, I can feel it in my gut."

John had never heard of 'I can feel it in my gut' before. Probably some human slang.

"The Council is ready for us, Shepard." Nihlus spoke up.

"Good luck, Shepard maybe they will listen to you." They walked away from Garrus.

They walked up the last remaining steps and past some Keepers to Captain Anderson.

"The hearing has already started. Come on!" He walked up the steps to the Council. John, Nihlus and Ashley followed him up.

They heard the Asari Councillor say as they walked up. "The geth attack is a matter of some concern. But there is nothing to indicate Saren was involved in any way."

A massive hologram of Saren towered above them all.

"What about the evidence from the Quarian?" Udina spoke up.

"Easily could have been fabricated. We all know Quarians are masters with technology." The Salarian Councillor swiped Udina's outburst away.

"The investigation of Citadel Security turned up no evidence to support your charge of treason." The Turian Councillor said smugly.

"Two people saw him try to kill Nihlus! The Quarian saved Nihlus from Saren!" Udina countered.

The Councillors turned to Nihlus. "Did Saren attempt or try in any way to kill you, Nihlus?" The Asari Councillor asked.

"I'm not... sure. I heard a shot from behind me where Saren was at. It seems that the Quarian's knife threw Saren's aim off while he tried to shoot me."

"Nihlus! My friend, I would never attempt to hurt or kill a friend or a fellow Spectre in cold blood. I resent these accusations!" Saren said coolly.

"We have read the report from Eden Prime. The testimony of a traumatized Dockworker and a Quarian is not much."

"That is just to let you catch him off guard!" Anderson bellowed at Saren.

"Ah, Captain Anderson. You always seem to be involved when humanity makes false charges against me." He looked at John. " And this must be the Quarian we have been hearing so much about. John'Shepard. The one who let the beacon get destroyed. But what do you expect from a Quarian?

John looked to the tubes and implants across Saren's body. He looked to Saren's geth arm. "Hah, Turian you are a walking beacon yourself. What about we open you up and see what is inside." He waited for his statement to take effect on them. "Saren despises Humanity and the Quarians! That is why he attacked Eden Prime, a Human colony!"

"Humanity needs to learn their place in the Galaxy. They are not ready to join the Council and none of them are ready to join the Spectres. As for the Quarians, you had your chance in the Citadel but you destroyed your chance by creating the geth and causing an all out war, Eventually ending with you losing your home world and all of you becoming suit rats. If the geth were never trifled with the attack on the colony would have never had happened!" Saren brought the facts to the table.

"He has no right to say that! That is not his decision!"

"The creation of the geth and if humanity is ready to join the Council is not the purpose of this meeting." The Asari Councillor said.

"This meeting has no purpose! The humans and the Quarian is wasting your time, Councillor and Mine!"

"Saren's hiding behind is position as a Spectre, You bosh'tets need to open your eyes!" John angrily turned to the Council.

"What we need is evidence, so far we have fabricated information!"

"There is still one outstanding issue. Shepard's vision. It may have been triggered by the beacon."

"Are we allowing dreams into evidence now?" Saren said sarcastically. "How can I defend myself against this testimony?"

The Turian Councillor spoke up again. "I agree. Our judgement needs to be based on facts and evidence, not wild imaginings and reckless speculation."

"Do you have anything else to add, Quarian?" The Salarian Councillor asked.

"You have made your decision. I won't waste my breath on you bosh'tets."

The Asari Councillor turned to the Turian Councillor, he shook his head. She turned to the Salarian Councillor, he shook his head. "The Council has found no evidence of any connection between Saren and the Geth. Ambassador, your petition to have Saren disbarred from the Spectres is denied."

"I'm glad justice is served." With that Saren disappeared.

Before the Council could say "This meeting is adjourned." John was already walking away from them. Anderson, Udina, Nihlus, and Ashley caught up with him.

"It was a mistake bringing you into that hearing, Captain. You and Saren have too much history. It made the Council question our motives."

"I know Saren, he is working with the Geth to exterminate the whole Quarian and Human race."

John turned back to them "We need to deal with Saren ourselves."

"As a Spectre he is virtually untouchable." Udina brought his hand to his chin. "We need to find someway to expose him."

"What about Garrus, that C-Sec investigator. We saw him arguing with Executor Pallin." Nihlus brought up.

"That's right! He was asking for more time to finish his report. Seems like he was close to finding something on Saren." Ashley added.

"Where can we find him?"

"I have a contact in C-Sec who can help track him down. His name is Harkin."

"Forget it. They suspended Harkin last month, drinking on the job. I won't waste my time with that loser. "

"You won't have to, I'm not going to let the Council use your past history with Saren to ignore everything we turn up. I might be making a big mistake, but the Quarian will handle this."

"You can't just cut Captain Anderson out of the investigation."

"The Ambassador is right, I need to step down."

"Captain, meet me in my office later, I have some business to take care of."

Once Udina left Captain Anderson spoke up. "Harkin is probably getting drunk in Chora's Den. It's a dingy little club in the lower section of the wards."

"I thought you said he as a drunken loser?"

"It wouldn't hurt to talk to him, just be careful I wouldn't call him reliable."

John, Nihlus and Ashley set off to find Harkin.


	11. Citadel 2

Going to be a short chapter before the reunion of Tali and Shepard.  
>Chapter 11: Citadel 2<p>

A few questions in the reviews.

A few have been about following the cannon in the story. Yes, I actually was following the cannon at some points changing it to fit a Quarian, but that will not happen that much anymore. I just tried to introduce us into the Citadel with something somewhat similar way.

A Question that two people kind of asked.** How was he unable to find the fleet?**  
>Yes, it is quite weird that he was unable to find the fleet, but there is an explanation for that also. He was busy getting backstabbed by friends not to get into too much stuff there, he also had no credits on him at the time so it was pretty hard to get to the Fleet. And that was how he adopted pickpocketing. He actually did go to different planets at times to explore, main reason he became a better fighter and harnessed his Biotic abilities better. We will get into the backstabbing part later into the story.<p>

And the Claymore, didn't do that much research into it, I just saw it was expensive and it had a lot of damage. "This would be a good present!" lets just say Shepard's dad toned down the recoil.

And Solid G3 Legend, your reviews don't bother me at all. They in fact tell me what to do more of, it seems you liked the biotic knife bit so I will get more of that out there. If you want more of or less of just send me a PM or put a review out there.

That basically covers the questions without further a due chapter 11.

PS: Couldn't come up with a better name for the chapter so I named it Citadel 2 :)

Ok now chapter 11.

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><p>John and his team moved swiftly through the Presidium, ignoring some Human Indian guy trying to get help. John remembered from 2 years ago he had used a Volus to tell him information. 'Was it Parla Von or Barla Von?' They moved to the bridge going to the Financial District. The bridge moved over the sparkling lake on the Presidium, if the Flotilla had this, they could give drink to millions of Quarians. But they don't. And with the geth and Saren looming over them, the Council is probably wondering if they should have listened to the Quarians and exterminated the geth along time ago.<p>

They moved past a statue of a Krogan, poorly done if he had to say so himself. They moved past a Hanar Emporium, with a Hanar inside trying to sell his wares to the people of the Citadel. Right beside the Emporium there was the small door that led to Barla Von if he remembered right. Nihlus, Ashley and John proceeded through the door.

He looked up from his console. "Whats this? A Clan-less? Ah, I have sold you information a while back, Shepard if my memory is correct. I presume you found the Batarian that betrayed you?"

Ashley and Nihlus heard this, both of them wondering about this Batarian that had betrayed Shepard. John had seen their faces, he had to draw it away from this subject.

"Cut the chatter, Barla Von. I'm here for information on a rogue Spectre, Saren presuming you still work for the Shadow Broker."

"You are still as blunt as ever, Shepard. But you are right, I still work for the Shadow Broker. And I do know something about Saren."

"Give me that information or..." John slid his knife onto the table. "We will have to use other means of extracting it from you."

"Threats don't work on me, Shepard-"

John interrupted the rest of his sentence. "Who said I was threatening you?"

This information is worth a small fortune. But this is an unusual situation. So I am going to give it to you for free."

"What's the catch?" Ashley spoke up from behind Shepard.

"There is no catch. The Shadow Broker is quite upset with Saren right now. They use to do a lot of business until Saren turned on him."

"I don't have time for your little talk, I am a very busy person, Barla. But if you deal with a traitor that is what will happen."

"No matter what you think of Saren, he's not stupid. He knows the Shadow Broker is a valuable ally." He stopped to take a breath. " Turning on him doesn't make sense. Not unless something huge is at stake. I don't know the details but the Shadow Broker hired a freelancer to deal with it. A krogan mercenary."

"I don't care if he hired a Yahg Mercenary, you have not answered my question do you have any information on Saren?"

Barla Von shifted in his seat."Hear me out, the Krogan at this point knows more than me, talk to him."

"Where is he?"

"I heard that he was having a chat with Citadel Security, if you hurry you might be able to catch him."

"Thanks for nothing." John turned and walked from the room.

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><p>Tali ran through the lower wards of the Citadel dodging everything in her way, may it be shops, people, crates. She cursed to herself as she continued to run, she had hoped the geth data would bring her closer to finding her friend, and maybe even some credits, but it has been nothing but trouble ever since she has extracted the data from the geth. The data said something about a person named Saren taking responsibility for attacking Eden Prime, she didn't even know who that was. By the tone in his voice he sounded very important, looking through more of the data she extracted from the geth she had learned more about Saren and his quest to bring the Reapers back. But why would Synthetics follow an Organic?<p>

From what she could tell, Saren sent assassins after her to retrieve the data. They have been unsuccessful so far, this data had been more than she had bargained for she needed help, protection she would have to put her search for John on hold. She had only met a small group of the Assassins so far, managing to kill them but one was able to get a shot off that ripped through her suit and grazed her arm. It was only a minor cut, but she did not have the proper utensils to deal with it. She had used them all up over the course of the years, not having enough money to buy more. She has seen a med clinic around here somewhere.

She continued to run very fast through the ward, attracting attention from a few people near by. She had memorized the map of the lower parts of the ward, from where she was right now she could tell she was approaching on the med clinic. She slowed as she saw the med clinic's doors, she didn't want to create a scene inside. She fast walked through the doors, revealing only one person standing in the room.

She approached the woman who was bent over some papers on a table. Tali tapped her on the shoulder. "I was wondering if you could help me with this."

The doctor turned, looking at her arm. "Sure, let me help you." She gestured towards a examination table. "Lets get you onto a table."

Tali sat quietly onto the table, watching the doctor work over her wound. She first cleaned the wound, then injected Tali with some antibiotics, then started to patch the hole in her suit up.

"How did you get this wound, dear?"

"Sorry, I can't say." She didn't want to arouse any suspicion that men were chasing her, may lead to weird questions.

"I understand, can you tell me your name?"

Tali stood from her seated position. "Sorry, I can't I have to go. How much do I owe you."

"Nothing it's a free clinic."

"Thanks!" Tali ran out the door."

She heard she could get protection from a man named Fist.

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><p>John moved to and his team moved towards Chora's Den after hearing the news about a Krogan Mercenary from Barla Von. Not very helpful it seemed to John, he has had his deal of run-ins with Krogan not all of them were good.<p>

"That's them!" They turned to see two "hit men" or "assassins"

'Stupid, just announce it to the world.' John thought as he pulled his pistol from his belt.

Nihlus and Ashley took cover the only person that was exposed was Shepard.

"Shepard get down!" Nihlus shouted from behind cover.

John ignored this, he brought his pistol lazily up with one hand and shot at the hit men. He did not have time for this playing around.

One hit man came from behind cover trying to get a shot off, only being shot in the head by Shepard's new and improved pistol. He pulled the last one out of the corner with his biotics, he was then shot in the head by Nihlus's assault rifle.

"That was my kill, Nihlus. But it doesn't matter plenty more to kill."

Did Nihlus hear aggression behind that sentence? Perhaps Shepard gets too into killing people.

They walked into the Gentleman's club with Human and Asari dancers alike on poles suspended above the bar. A few Asari ushered for John to join them in a corner. John ignored this only one thing on his mind. Harkin.

They started to approach the back, only to hear from a table. "Alliance Military?" He saw Ash's suit "*Pssh* I could have been in the Marines but instead I joined C-Sec biggest fucking mistake in my life."

"Are you Harkin?" They walked towards him. "Tell me where Garrus Vakarian is now."

"Garrus?" He chuckled "Poor bastard is still trying to bring down Saren, eh but what does a Quarian want with him?"

An anger broke out in John. "Listen bosh'tet, we don't have time for you to confirm what we already know just tell us where he is."

He picked his drink up. "I know where Garrus is, but do you know Captain Anderson by any chance?"

"Yes, of course just tell us where Garrus is?"

"Did he tell you his secret?" He sounded like a schoolboy about to tell a personal secret to someone else.

"Yeah sure whatever."

"If you know his secrets then, you should know he was a candidate to the Spectres."

"Yeah the Spectres." He brushed what Harkin said off. "That's great. Now Garrus?"

"He said something about going to Dr. Michel in the med clinic."

John clapped his hands together as he was clapping for Harkin. "About fucking time, thank you."

They walked out the exit of Chora's den. John stopped and turned to them. "We can pick up Wrex, we can go through the C-Sec to the Med Clinic and we-" He was cut short as a shot rang out.

3 Blue suns mercenary's walked towards them guns raised. One touched the side of his helmet. "Sir, we got them."

"Good, try to bring the Quarian back to me." The **Illusive Man **said.

"Sir what about-" This was their turn to cut them short in a sentence. Nihlus shot his assault rifle, the bullet ripped through the merc's shields then ripped through his skull.

Seizing the distraction of a falling merc body, They ran towards cover. John fiddled around with his belt and the pouches around it. Tech Mine time.

He threw a tech mine over to where the mercs' were in cover at. As he threw it he saw the mercs trying to scramble out of the way of it. A nice little explosion occurred sending the Mercs reeling to the ground from the blast.

Nihlus and John moved out from cover towards the Mercs, John holstered his weapon, he wouldn't need it he could easily tear them apart with his biotics. Ashley stayed back incase anymore mercs came from behind.

A human Mercenary, he seemed to be hit from the shrapnel of the blast, blood leaking from his wounds. He reached for his pistol and pulled it up aiming at John.

As out of an old western film John drew his weapon faster than Nihlus or the merc could react, shooting through the head of the merc, his brains splattered on the wall behind them.

Nihlus and Ashley saw this, both were impressed at the accuracy and quickness of Shepard's 'Quick Draw'.

Nihlus and John continued to move forward they saw the second merc, he had managed to get to his feet but was stumbling around dazed from the blast.

John quickly kneecapped the merc, that fell to the ground with a loud grunt of pain. The merc turned his body to face them.

A Batarian. John hated the Batarians more than any other species, they can't be trusted all they do is inflect pain, according to John's last experience with a Batarian.

"Wait Wait WAIT! Don't- Don't kill me." The Merc tried to crawl backwards, only causing his pain to increase.

"And why should we do-" John sat down on the Batarian's kneecaps that just taken a shots from his pistol. "That!"

The Batarian cried out in pain. "Because- Because I can tell you who sent us!"

"Why should I care?" John adjusted his seated position on the Batarian's knees inflecting another cry of pain from him.

"The- The Illusive man sent us... he- he payed all of us to bring you back dead or alive."

"The Illusive man?" Anger apparent in his voice. "I have had enough of CERBERUS!" He stood from the Batarian's knees.

"So you will let me go right?"

"Of course, we will let you go-" John moved up and grabbed the Batarians outreached hand. Once he came in contact with the Batarian's hand he brought his foot down on the Batarian's throat. "We will let you go to the Ancestors." He twisted his foot, they heard the bone shatter throughout the room.

"Shepard was that really nec-" Nihlus began.

"He was trying to kill us, Nihlus. He was our enemy, and our enemies must die." He walked towards the C-Sec offices. "Lets go speak to that Krogan."


	12. Reunion

Sorry for not getting to the Tali/Shep reunion in the last chapter, I have been caught up at school doing tests and whatnot. If you don't know already we are going to start to do longer chapters, maybe the occasional short chapter. We also are going to start getting in more depth with the stories, we also have thought of a new squad member for race name starts with a B, Shepard won't like that at all. Now what people have wanted for a while the reunion of Tali and Shepard. Just to confirm any questions it will be in this chapter. You will see something old and very renegadey? in this chapter.

Chapter 12: Reunion

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><p>3 C-Sec officers surrounded one Krogan with a scar down his face. "Witnesses saw you making threats in Fist's bar. Stay away from him."<p>

The Krogan replied in a gruff deep voice "I don't take orders from you."

"This is your only warning Wrex." The human looked the Krogan in the eyes.

"You should warn Fist. I will kill him." Wrex moved his head forward causing the Human to flinch back.

The Human regained his composure. "You want me to arrest you?"

Wrex chuckled "I want you to try."

Wrex saw Shepard and his crew, he began to move past the human only hitting their shoulders against one another when he reached him.

"Yeah go on get out of here!" The Human said acting like a tough guy. The C-Sec officers walked off probably going to talk about how the Human stood up to a Krogan back at C-Sec Headquarters.

Wrex approached stopping in front of him. "Yes, Shepard?"

"How do you know my name?" John asked suspiciously.

"Almost every Krogan knows what your suit looks like and almost all respect you, even if you are a Quarian. You were the only Alien to take down a Thresher Maw and to add to that you took it down from the inside."

As Wrex said this he remembered the Thresher Maw from Akuze. And the death. "Yeah well, I was too late to save everyone else."

"I heard from another Krogan that you went toe to toe with a Krogan about two years ago, you ripped his head scale off and killed him with it."

"He was very stupid. I also learned a lesson from that day, The head scales make a potent weapon and Krogan don't like their head scale ripped off."

Wrex looked very amused. "Hah! You've got a quad Shepard." They both shook hands.

"So lets get to the point." John turned serious in a second. "I'm trying to take down Saren, Barla Von said to talk to you."

Wrex noticed the change in tone."Barla Von is a wise man, we share common goals, Shepard."

"So, the Shadow Broker hired you to take down this Fist. Seems right from what I heard of your conversation with your C-Sec friends."

"Yes, he did something very foolish."

"He betrayed the Shadow Broker." John noticed how slow this Krogan was explaining things.

"A Quarian showed up here on the Citadel, on the run. She wanted to trade information for a safe place to hide so she went to Fist, he said he would arrange a meeting with the Shadow Broker. Instead he contacted Saren. You might know the Quarian"

'A Quarian? Could this be...? No the chances were one out of a thousand. But what if it is...? It could be.' He thought as Wrex mentioned the a Quarian.

"Do you know her name... The Quarian's?

"No, the Shadow Broker just sent me to kill Fist. Fist is greedy, Saren payed Fist a small fortune for the Quarian. He had to she had information connecting him to the Geth."

"If we get that information we could maybe convince the Council that Saren is a traitor, but they didn't listen to you they might not listen to the Quarian." Nihlus threw in.

"Well maybe if you gave a real testimony against Saren, my information and her information could convince them. Last time you just stood there looking stupid saying 'The Quarian threw a knife at him.' No offense."

"Well I've known Saren for so long, it is hard to think that he would do something like this. He was a friend and a mentor."

This was just like what happened to him a few years back. "Yeah, I understand Nihlus, I had a friend betray me a year back. A Batarian."

Suddenly it snapped into Nihlus and Ashley's heads that was the reason why Shepard killed the Batarian the way he did.

John noticed the looks on their face's he could see Ashley start to open her mouth to ask him about it. He needed to steer the conversation the other way. "So where is the Quarian now?"

"Last I heard Fist still has her, in his club. You help me kill Fist I help you get the Quarian."

John saw Ashley start to open her mouth. He was scared for a second she would ask about his past.

"What about Garrus he wants to bring down Saren too." Ashley cut in, to John's relief she only asked about Garrus.

"Yeah he might come in handy too." John acknowledged.

"He was here just before you showed up. Said he was going to follow up a lead on his investigation. Wanted to speak to the doctor at the med clinic."

He stretched his 2 fingers and thumb he was itching for something to shoot. "Let's get Garrus first before we storm in and try to kill Fist we will need all the help we can get."

* * *

><p>A few minutes later after making it through all the crowds in the wards, finally made it to the med clinic door. Hopefully Garrus was still in there it would be a lot of trouble if he was not. They met up with Kaidan Alenko halfway there, saying he was looking for them, he was bored of listening to Doctor Chakwas about his migraines. He quickly joined the group, Shepard, Ashley, Wrex, Nihlus, and Kaidan with Garrus coming this would make another member, John did not like leading so many people into combat at once he preferred a team that could get in and out quickly without the hassle.<p>

He stopped in front of the doors. "Alright the med clinic. Ready yourselves anyone or anything could behind these doors."

"Paranoid much, Quari-" Ashley stopped herself "Shepard?"

"Williams if you have seen as much as me you would be checking every corner too. Just prepare for anything at anytime." John countered.

John kept light on his toes as he moved through the door, ready to spring at any moment. He didn't have his weapons out but he was just as deadly.

As they came in the saw a few men with guns, threatening the Doctor.

"I didn't tell anyone, I swear!" the woman cried out.

"That was smart, Doc," one of the men replied. "Now, if Garrus comes around, you stay smart. Keep your mouth shut, or-" He finally noticing the group standing by the door. He quickly grabbed the woman and started to apparently use her as a human shield.

John saw Garrus squatting behind cover. 'Oh no you don't' Shepard said to himself.

The thug started to raise the pistol at John. He reacted before Garrus or the thug saw or could understand what happened. He dived to the side, while pulling out two knives that he threw at the exposed head of the thug. He threw both the knives before he touched the ground. As he hit the ground, he rolled he pulled his pistol from his belt. He used his the momentum to roll into his combat stance he shot the two other thugs that were behind the Doctor. All in one motion.

The Doctor threw herself to the side as the firefight went on. Wrex, Ashley, Kaidan and Nihlus stood stupidly in the doorway amazed by what they just saw from the Quarian. Wrex was first to react drawing his Shotgun, and slamming his back against cover beside Shepard.

"Nice of you to join me." John smirked behind his mask.

Kaidan, Ashley, and Nihlus followed suit. They held their weapons to their chests behind cover. John used his biotics to pull one thug towards him and his squad. Wrex blew him away with a Carnage round. Not necessary but it was delighting to see the thug be thrown across the room, his blood splattering across the floor.

Only two thugs left, easy. John cloaked himself and moved out from cover. He moved towards the thug closest to them. He stepped from behind the thug, then sprang into action grabbing him from behind he stabbed him in the abdomen then slit his throat, letting him fall to the ground, spluttering and drowning in his own blood.

One left, the kill is going to be his. "STOP!" He shouted to his squad. "Hes mine."

Garrus, Wrex, Ashley, and Kaidan watched on as Shepard waited for the thug to show himself. The thug popped out from cover hoping to get a shot out on the Quarian, only to be lifted by John's biotics into the air. John smiled as the thug played right into his trap. Threatening a place that helped people and for free. Disgusting he needed to pay for this.

He playfully twirled the thug around and around making him dizzy. He then dropped the thug to the ground, the thug struggled to get to his feet. This brought a smile to Wrex's face. John watched the thug struggle for a few more seconds then lifted him back up into the air. Then forcefully slammed his face first into the floor. The deafening smack rang out all around the room. Playtime was over. John lifted the Thug back up and propped him against the wall with his biotics. He needed to do a little target practice anyways. He drew a knife then balanced it in his hand. He used his remaining biotics to propel the knife through the air. They all heard the knife hit the Human.

Dead on. Right in the throat where the Jugular Vein is. No need to hold him against the wall anymore. He dropped him to the floor, the human fell to the ground clutching the knife in his throat. He bled out quickly. John went over collecting the knives from the dead bodies.

Wrex had saw and he liked what he saw. He moved towards John as he picked up his knives from the head of the thug that was using the doctor as a human shield. "Impressive, Shepard you are not like your kind you are ready to jump into combat at any moment."

"You always have to be ready, Wrex. I'm just happy no one got hurt especially the Doctor."

Wrex couldn't figure him out, he seemed to be a Tyrant on the battlefield controlling all movements of the enemy, killing without mercy. But when out of combat he worries about the well being of the people around him.

Garrus approached Shepard with Doctor Michel. "What were you thinking, Shepard? You could've hurt Dr. Michel!" Garrus said angrily.

The rest of his squad turned up.

"I had to react, the Doctor could've been hurt by that thug. You were too slow, so I did what you were going to do." He looked over to Dr. Michel. "Are you hurt Doctor?"

"No, Thanks to you, all of you."

"I'm sorry if I put you in any dangerous position or situation, Doctor. Forgive me." John nodded his head towards her. "And sorry about the mess." He motioned towards the blood ridden, bullet hole filled room.

Doctor Michel was surprised how friendly he was, from what she just saw of him. "It's my fault I got myself in this position. I never told anyone about it, Fist's thugs have been threatening me for years. But this was the first time they did something this... rash. They didn't want me to tell Garrus about the Quarian. This is the first time I've seen two Quarians on the same day."

"That was the Quarian I told you about, Shepard." Wrex added from behind him.

"You've seen the Quarian today? Did she tell you anything about herself?"

"No she just came in with something that looked like a cut on her arm, I gave her some antibiotics and fixed her suit. She didn't tell me her name or anything. After I fixed her suit, she quickly left as if someone was following her."

"We should pay this Fist a visit, we might be able to solve your thug problem for you." He looked to the Turian beside the Doctor. "Vakarian you coming or staying?"

He replied quickly, it was obvious he wanted to come along. "I hate Saren as much as all of you do, no way I will pass this up."

"Alright then, Doctor you try to stay safe while we are gone, the rest of you get ready for a nice little visit to Chora's Den."

**15 Minutes later **

A little way away from Chora's Den. "Alright listen up, Wrex and I will take lead the lead, Garrus you stay back giving us covering fire with your Sniper Rifle. Nihlus you will take Kaidan and Ashley then follow in behind us. Any Questions?"

The silence that came meant a 'No'

They followed Shepard down the hallway towards Chora's Den, they reached the door.

"Allow me, Shepard." Wrex piped up from beside him. Wrex took his shotgun out from behind him, then hit the Door's green button opening it.

Once they opened the door, a hail of fire came from behind it sending each of them diving for cover. Wrex and Shepard managed to get to cover inside of Chora's Den while the others were pinned down outside of Chora's Den.

"This is going to be a good fight, Shepard!" Wrex yelled from behind cover. Despite being shot at, the Krogan couldn't hide his delight for finally being in a real firefight.

The shooting from the enemy stopped briefly, they had to cool their weapons down. Wrex and Shepard reacted, Wrex took left side, John took right. Nihlus rushed in with Kaidan and Ashley to cover their approach. Garrus stood back, a familiar sight greeted him once he looked through sights of the sniper rifle.

John moved through the club with his new assault rifle. John moved to an overturned table and took cover behind it, bring his weapon to his chest he gritted his teeth as the shots of the thugs hit the table. He popped his head out of cover with his Assault rifle, he quickly aimed his sights at a thug on his right. He fired 3 accurate shots, the first two tore his shields out, his last one ripped through the chest of the thug sending him back crashing through a table.

He then turned his attention to a thug on top of the bar, but he was not fast enough. A single shot rang out from Garrus's sniper rifle. The shot ripped through the thug's shields, the shields did not slow the bullet down at all, it tore through the thug's head sending him off the top of the bar down onto the bar's counter.

John stood from cover only seeing one more enemy left, hiding behind the bar's counter. He rolled to the counter, reached over and slammed the thug on his back, putting his foot on the thug's chest preventing it from going anywhere. The thug grabbed at John's foot trying to move it off, but his Quarian legs were too strong. He took his assault rifle and shot the thug in the head. The thug struggled one second more then his hands fell to his side.

But something else tugged at John's attention it was a big, heavy, shotgun armed Krogan bouncer.

'Ah shit.' John said to himself. Krogan with shotgun, not a good sign.

John fell to the ground on his stomach as the Krogan bouncer pulled his finger against the trigger. The bullets flew directly above John, shattering glasses of alcohol and splintering wood. John crawled on his knees as the Krogan continued to fire at him. John then bounced up from cover and managed to get a few shots off before the Krogan pinned him back down. The Krogan continued to fire at the counter. After the Krogan fired off a few more rounds, John heard the familiar sound of a gun overheating. He rose from behind the counter, he ran towards the counter, put his foot against it and used it as a platform to jump off of. He landed on the Krogan, the impact sending the Krogan to the ground.

John rose the butt of his rifle and slammed it into the head of the Krogan, he continued this motion a few more times, finally seeing the blood of the Krogan. He developed dark energy around his fist and used the force of his biotics to send his fist down onto the Krogan's head. The Krogan now had blood all over his face, he didn't look like he was going anywhere soon. John rose from the Krogan and raised his rifle then shot into the unprotected part of the head on the Krogan.

He scanned the area around him checking for anymore enemies. All clear. The rest of his squad turned up. "Where the hell were all of you bosh'tets when I was fighting this Krogan?"

"Enjoying the show, you looked like you had it under control." Wrex answered for all of them. "You did a damn good job with him... for a Quarian."

John shook his head side to side. "Lets just go speak with this Fist."

They all followed John to the door, as it opened it revealed two terrified workers.

One of the warehouse workers said nervously. "Sto- stop right there don't come any closer I have a -"

John cut into his sentence. "Get the fuck out of here, humans."

"Yeah- Yeah, I never liked Fist anyways." With that they ran out of the door.

"Would have been easier to kill them." Wrex piped up from behind.

"Killing his not always the answer." John turned to face Wrex.

"Why does that not mean much coming from you?" Ashley said.

They all moved to the Fist's door. "Allow me." John said.

He used his biotics to throw the door off it's 'hinges'?

"If you need to do something, you need to do it yourself!" Fist yelled once the door was thrown open. He activated two out of date turrets around him.

"Take him alive!" John yelled out to them.

Garrus, Nihlus and John rushed forward, John noticed that the turrets were very out of date and probably easy to hack. He worked into the turret's systems behind cover, he ordered it to self destruct. It did so. He moved to the next one. The fight had ended before it even began with Fist on the floor.

"Don't kill me!" He yelled out to them the fear evident in his voice.

"Where's is she?" John asked.

"I don't know where she is!" He sat up a little better from his lying position. "It is ironic, a Quarian asking where the Quarian is."

John drew his pistol, Fist flinched. "Tell me where she is now, before I replace your eye sockets with bullet holes."

"I told her that I would arrange a meeting with the Shadow Broker! But Saren's men will be there. The deal is going to happen in 40 minutes from now!"

'40 Minutes, enough time to ask a friendly question.'

He crouched down beside Fist. "Your going to let me go now, right?" Fist asked.

"Shepard, when I get payed to kill someone I kill them!" Wrex shouted.

"Wait Wrex, I have a question for him before we do anything." He looked Fist in the eyes with his silver eyes. "I've heard you used another one of my kind for your own personal gain, you used her."

"Yea-Yeah I did and I'm sorry!"

His blood boiled this human didn't get it! He would just do the same thing if he allowed him to live. "Wrex hold him down." He told Wrex, Wrex complied willingly. John pulled his knife out and rolled it in his hands.  
>"So Mr. Fist, Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a Quarian?"<p>

* * *

><p>Garrus, Kaidan, Ashley and Nihlus stood outside Fist's door, they didn't want to see the pain that was being brought to Fist. They could hear his screams in the hallway outside his door, it was just a simple question turned into a death sentence. A single shot rang out in Fist's office, finally Fist's pain was over.<p>

Wrex and John walked out of the room, Wrex with a huge smile on his face. "You really know how to make a Human scream, Shepard."

John had time to think over the course of 5 years, only asking that question once in that time span, to a Batarian. He noticed that he forgot before about the bowed back legs of a Quarian so he fixed that problem, So he was able to bow Fist's legs back. Very painful for a human.

They had spent most of 40 minutes dealing with Fist, so they only had a couple on minutes to reach the Quarian.

John noticed this problem. "We only have a couple on minutes to reach the Quarian before the deal happens, after that she is dead and the data is gone! So lets hurry."

They followed John's lead as they ran back through the club. Dead bodies and blood littered the floor from their previous fight. They avoided the bodies, jumping or going around them. Wrex crushed the bodies as he stepped on them to get to the door. They managed to get to the door, according to John's omnitool they only had 3 minutes to find the Quarian. He knew it was going to be in the lower wards, somewhere hidden and out of sight.

John continued to ponder this question as he walked by a door to an alleyway.

'Hmm, an alley would be perfect for the trade.'

Out of suspicion, he opened the door and turned up his suit's audio receptors. He heard voices from the Alley.

He could tell from the sound of the voice that a Turian was talking. "Did you bring it?"

Looks like the trade is already happening, he crept silently forward with his Team behind him. He then motioned for Wrex to stay back, his feet were too loud banging against the floor with all the weight he had. The rest of him and his team managed to get to the scene of the trade. A Quarian and a Turian. John thought he recognized the back of her suit. It kind of looked like a friend he had been forced away from along time ago.

"Where's the Shadow Broker, Where's Fist?" The feminine voice of the Quarian talking. John definitely recognized that voice. It sounded like Tali, her voice has changed a little from over the course of 5 years, but she still sounded like the old Tali. He had the urge to run down there, to talk with her, to let her know he was here.

The turian moved his hand down supposedly Tali's head and down her arm. This made John mad. "They'll be here, where's the evidence?"

She slapped his hand away. "No way. The deal's off."

John knew something was going to happen when she said those words. Two Salarian assassins stepped forward, pistols drawn. Tali saw this too, she threw a tech mine at their feet, causing a distraction to her to jump to cover. She drew her shotgun that her friend gave her those many years ago. It still looked the way he gave it to her, she had taken good care of it. She was on her own for this one(she thought).

The Salarian and the Turian started firing at her position, as the smoke cleared from her tech mine, she saw that she managed to kill one Salarian. She readied herself for a fight right when she heard... a shot ring out sailing right through the shields of the Turian then through his head. Who shot at the Assassin? Maybe C-Sec? They have been watching her. Another shot sliced through the air, and found it's place in the Salarian.

She saw no more enemies, it was safe to see who her savior is. Probably C-Sec and they would take her back to HQ. She holstered her weapon and turned her head.

What she saw surprised her. A Quarian! It looked like... no it couldn't be. It has to be! Not just any Quarian would be on the Citadel. It was him! She saw the markings around his Visor, his custom made suit.

"Are you-" John started but was unable to finish his sentence as the body of the Quarian slammed into him, gripping him dead tight in a hug.

He returned the hug, he knew it was Tali now.

Tali knew it was John for sure.

All the pain in John's heart from 5 years came out and dispersed in the hug.

All the sadness in Tali's heart from 5 years came out and dispersed in the hug.

She had finally found him!

He finally found her!

The absence of 5 years was forgotten in the hug between these two Quarians. The hug said what couldn't be said. The hug found it's way inside both Tali and John's hearts the hug, pierced their hearts filling it with happiness and love, where sadness, pain, abuse, death was before. It radiated from them both, even the members of John's squad looked on, feeling the happiness and love radiate throughout the room.

After holding the hug for many minutes they finally broke apart looking into each others eyes. Tali grabbed John's hand "John."

John grabbed her hand in return holding it tightly. "Tali."

They both embraced each other in a hug again, tears flooding from Tali's eyes. "I missed you so much! I looked everywhere for you! I almost killed you! I should have stayed with you! I should have helped you! I should have-"

"Tali." He pulled out of the hug. He placed his hand on the side of Tali's helmet, like he was touching her cheek. "It's okay, its all okay. I'm here now and that's all that matters." He touched his visor to her's replicating a Quarian kiss. He then pulled her back into the embrace. He couldn't get his hands off of her, seeing her the first time in 5 years!

Tali couldn't get her hands off of John either she wished this moment would happen forever.

"Shepard...!" His squad called out from behind him, breaking the precious moment.

They broke the hug, Tali was snapped out of her trance and saw John's suit and visor. She grabbed his hand. "We need to get you medical attention! Your visor is cracked! Your suit has a cut across it!" Tali tried to pull on his hand to lead him to the med clinic. He didn't budge but that didn't stop her from trying.

"Tali, its okay, the cut is only across the armor and fabric not through the suit. The crack is not deep it's fine Tali!"

Tali calmed herself down a bit. She noticed his voice had deepened from when she last talked to him, she found this very attractive. She could read his eyes, she knew he had experienced a lot, they looked different then when she last saw them. His eyes use to not have a care in the world. But now she could tell in his eyes he was weighed down by something in his past that he could not let go of.

Tali changed their conversation to Khelish, wanting this to be private. "What happened, John?" She asked worriedly.

"Long story, now is not the time Tali, we have to get back to Udina and the Council." He replied in Khelish, he avoided her question.

"What happened to Fist, he set me up!"

"He was educated... on what it was like to be a Quarian. He was dealt with." The conversation switching back to the common trade language. "We better go back to Udina."

Tali grabbed his hand. She said in a playful voice "Lead on, Mr. Shepard."

John grabbed her hand in return. "Alright, Mrs. Zorah."

* * *

><p>"Your not making my life easy, Shepard. Firefights in the ward, an all out assault on Chora's Den, Butchering Fist."<p>

"He had it coming to him." John countered.

Udina turned then saw Tali. "Who's this? We have enough Quarian's as it is, what are you up to, Shepard?"

"We found more proof that Saren is a traitor, this is it." He nudged his head in Tali's direction.

"Well then you better start explaining at the beginning, Miss...?"

"Her name is Tali!" John quickly said. "Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."

"We don't see many Quarian's here, you and Shepard have names that are like each other both with nar Rayya."

"That just mean's we were born on the same ship. I left on my pilgrimage-"

"Our rite of passage into adulthood." John finished for her.

"Yes, I tracked down some Geth to an uncharted world, I found one that strayed away from the group, I dismantled it and took his memory core."

"I thought the Geth fried their memory cores when they die." Anderson piped up.

"If you are fast enough you can still get some of the data, that is how I got the previous data on Eden Prime." John answered his question. "What did you find out Tali?"

"Most of the core was wiped clean but I salvaged something from it's audio banks." Tali typed on her omnitool, activating the evidence to be played.

Saren's voice came out of her Omnitool. "Eden Prime was a major victory! The Beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit!"

"That's Saren's voice, that proves that he was involved in the attack!" Anderson said.

"We got him on this one!"

"Wait there's more! Saren wasn't working alone!" She activated it again.

"Eden Prime was a major victory! The Beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit." A feminine voice then said. "And one step closer to finding the Reapers."

"I don't recognize the other voice. The one talking about the Reapers."

"I've heard that name before..." John said suspiciously.

"According to the memory core the reapers were a hyper advanced machine race that existed 50,000 years ago. The Reapers hunted the Protheans to total extinction and then they vanished. At least that's what the Geth believe." Tali said knowingly.

"Sounds a little far-fetched."

"The vision on Eden Prime, it showed the Reapers killing the Protheans!"

"The Council is going to love this..."

"They might just ignore it like they ignored my evidence."

"No matter what they think about the rest of us, those audio files prove that Saren is a traitor!"

"The Captain is right. We need to present this to the Council right away."

Ashley spoke up for the first time. "What about her, the Quarian?"

"Her name is Tali! She will be joining me in taking down Saren!"

Tali glanced at Shepard, giving him a slight 'Thanks' with her eyes.

* * *

><p>"We have some of our scientists to test any of the evidence you present." The Salarian Councilor said.<p>

"Listen to this." Udina spoke up. He activated the data.

"Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit." The feminine voice spoke up. "And one step closer to finding the Reapers."

"You wanted more proof, there it is!"

It took a moment for the scientists to test the data, to see if it was a fabrication. They all gave a slight shake of their head, telling the council it was not fabricated.

"This evidence is irrefutable, Ambassador. Saren will be stripped of his Spectre status and all efforts will be made to bring him in to answer for his crimes." The Turian Councillor said.

The Asari Councillor spoke up. "I recognize the other voice, Matriarch Benezia."

"Just another traitor that will die." John said scornfully.

"Matriarch Benezia is a powerful biotic and has many followers she will make a formidable ally for Saren."

"I'm more interested in talking about the Reapers, what do you know of them?"

"Just what the memory core tells us, The Reapers were an ancient race of machines that wiped out the Protheans. Then vanished."

"The geth think the Reapers are gods." John said to the Council. "Saren thinks he can bring back the Reapers, that's why the geth follow him."

"Saren wants to bring back the machines that wiped out all life in the galaxy? Impossible it has to be." The Turian Councillor spoke again. "Where did the Reapers go? Why did they vanish? How come we never found any trace of their existence? If they were real we would have found something!"

"I tried to warn you about Saren, but your ignorance blocked your eyes, don't make the same mistake again."

"This is different we know that Saren is using the Geth to search for the Conduit but we don't know why." The Asari Councillor countered.

"They are just a lie to bend the will of the geth to Saren." The Salarian Councillor added

"The Reapers wiped out life in the Galaxy before, it will happen again if Saren finds the Conduit."

"He no longer has the rights and resources of a Spectre. The Council has stripped him of his position." The Turian put in.

"Send your fleet in, that is not good enough!" Udina shouted.

"We will not risk war with the Terminus systems." The Turian countered.

"Send me, I can take Saren down."

"The Quarian is right, there is a way to get Saren without fleets or armies."

"We will give you enough authority to govern a ship and you will be able to step out of law at times but you WILL not be a Spectre. The Quarians are not ready for it."

"Where should I start looking and where will I get a ship?"

"We will forward it all to Udina, except for the ship you will have to get that on your own. This meeting is adjourned."

They walked away from the Council, reviling in success. Udina and Anderson stopped John to speak with him. "You have a lot of work to do, you are going to need a ship, crew, supplies. We will talk to you when we get it set up, Anderson come with me I need your help setting this up."

John was about to be a Captain of a ship, he found his best friend, he set the Council straight and he was getting to hunt down Saren. All in a days work.


	13. Normandy

Sorry for no updates for a while, my mother had been sick and I have been trying to care for her. She is already getting better, so that means more updates. Hopefully we can get it back on track.

**Normandy: Chapter 13**

* * *

><p>Udina, Anderson, John and his squad were next to the ship in the docking bay.<p>

"One does not simply take a ship away from Captain Anderson and I am not doing it!" John repeated for what seemed like the 5th time.

Udina had suggested that Captain Anderson step down, then let John use his Ship and Crew. He didn't like this idea one bit, because it was Anderson's crew and ship, they don't even know who he is.

"What do you think of this, Anderson?" Udina and John turned to Anderson.

Anderson pondered the question for a few moments. "Yeah... I think it is time I step down-"

"What about the crew? They don't know who I am! What if they don't want a Quarian as their Captain?"

"They will understand... the situation that is presenting itself in front of us... You will do good, you already have people following you."

John sighed, there is no way that he could change their minds. He could not deny that he was excited, one of the best ships in the Alliance military given to him. He had a glance inside the ship when they were taking him to the Citadel, it was impressive but the crew didn't know him at all.

"Alright... Alright." He gave in.

"Then I think I should introduce you to the crew as their new Captain."

They all moved to the Normandy, that was in dock. They passed through the extended bridge into the Normandy's decontamination chamber. As they came into the interior of the Normandy a few heads of the crew turned to acknowledge their presence, they kept their stare for a while, after seeing the wide variety of Aliens coming aboard.

Pressly... that human was staring down each Alien, his stare lingering on the two Turians. "Captain Anderson.. What is this?"

Anderson ignored Pressly's question and continued towards the cockpit, to Joker. "Joker assemble the Crew in the CIC."

"Yes, Sir. Anderson what's going on?"

"Don't worry about it." Anderson walked to the end of the cockpit, to look down on some of the Crew.

John watched Anderson from the side. He respected the man for giving up his ship and crew for him. Udina on the other hand was not to be trusted. John moved to the wall and put his back against it folding his arms.

Tali looked around the ship, she was very impressed... and that she would be serving on it excited her even more.

Wrex grunted and turned to look at Anderson. Kaidan and Ashley moved into the crew of the Normandy. Nihlus and Garrus followed Kaidan and Ashley into the crew.

All of the crew assembled in the CIC, their talking was being heard throughout the room. They asked each other what was happening and questioned each other what they knew about the Aliens that boarded the ship.

Anderson cleared his throat, the whole room went quiet. All eyes went to Anderson. "I am abandoning my post of Captain-"

An uproar of talking and yells came from the crew. They obviously didn't want to lose their Captain.

Anderson waited until they stopped to speak again. "Someone will be taking my place as commanding officer of the Normandy. His name is Shepard, he is a Quarian he will be helping to bring down Saren"

After saying that he moved to Udina and John.

Udina started the conversation. "Matriarch Benezia the other voice in the recording. She has a daughter a scientist who specializes in Protheans. We don't know if she is involved in anything but it may be a good idea to find her, see what she knows. Her name is Liara, Dr. Liara T'Soni. We have reports that she was studying an archeological dig on one of the uncharted worlds in the Artemis Tau cluster. We have geth sightings on Feros and Noveria."

"I need to get going, anything else?"

"Good luck, Shepard." Anderson extended his hand. John took it. It was a weird feeling, feeling a 5 fingered hand and not a 3 fingered.

Udina and Anderson left the Normandy, the way they came in. The crew dispersed, 'I should win the crew over.' Was the first thought that went through John's mind. 'Or maybe I should check the capabilities of this ship.' Was his other thought. He quickly disappeared into the crew going down to the lower decks. He didn't want to talk to Tali just yet, he needed his thoughts clear.

Tali looked around the deck for John, she wanted to talk to him but he disappeared on her after talking to Udina. "I hate when that bosh'tet disappears on me!" She said aloud.

"What's that Tali?" Garrus asked.

"Oh! Nothing." She said embarrassed.

She scanned the room for John, and caught a glimpse of the end of his hood disappearing, past the door, down the steps to the elevator. She pushed her way past the remaining crew members in the room, muttering the occasional excuse me or sorry.

When she finally made it to where John was he was already getting into the elevator. She ran through the crowd to catch up with him, but was not fast enough due to all the people in the room blocking her way. She saw the elevator shut and John go down.

John activated the elevator to go down to the Engineering and storage deck. He heard that there was a Mako from one of the crew members that weren't afraid to speak to him, he wanted to see this for himself.

They finally arrived on the Engineering and storage deck. The crew members in the elevator left, to attend to their duties on the lower decks. John was in what he suspected was the Cargo Hold AND to his surprise there was a Mako.

He walked around the Mako, examining it. According to his omnitool it could be upgraded a lot better than it was. He was sure he was going to work on this Mako sometime. He went into a door that led to the drive core, he could hear is pulsing. He approached the door, in anticipation. He knew a ship of this stature would have an amazing drive core. He took a deep breath and walked through the door.

He was shocked when he came through the door. The drive core was amazing. He stood there and looked into it's blue pulsing rays. There was a man tending to the core, he approached the man, he tapped on his shoulder. The man turned then took a step back in shock. He quickly recovered himself.

"Do you work on the drive core alone?" John asked him.

"Mostly... but I also have a Engineering team that helps out. They are still rookies, but they work."

"What's your name?"

"Chief Engineer Adams."

"Ah..."

He turned and faced the blue pulsing drive core.

* * *

><p>Tali climbed out of the slow elevator. She was surprised how slow the elevator was, this was suppose to be one of the best ships in the Alliance, and she was sure some elevators on the fleet were faster than that. She thought for a moment. What would John do? From what she knew of him in the past, he would always look at the engineering of the ship.<p>

She looked around the cargo hold, seeing nothing of interest, she walked into a door near the elevator. She heard a pulsing sound when she first opened the door, she rounded the corner and saw, a massive drive core with blue pulsing lights, with a Human and a Quarian in the room. That was him.

"Keelah!" She exclaimed, this drive core was amazing way better than the ones on the fleet. They had not been lying when they said this was a state of the art ship. She moved up to stand beside John and look into the drive core.

"It's amazing." John suddenly said.

"I could stare at it for hours."

"Yeah."

She had been wanting to talk to him for so long, she had no idea what to say or what to do. What if he thought she was weird? What if he didn't like her anymore? What should I do? He has been gone for a very long time.

She finally came to a conclusion. "How are you doing, John."

"Well not including 5 years of hell, I am fine." His eyes flashed over.

She was taken aback by this. "I'm sorry if I..."

"No...it's my fault. I'm sorry I came on you too hard. It's just I've been having a hard time lately."

"It's okay." She moved closer to him, and gave him a big hug.

"Well, I better go tell Mr. Monroe to take us out of dock. We can talk sometime later, Tali?"

"Uh...yes... I will just stay in here and see if I can help out any."

He went out the door, into the Cargo Hold then into the elevator. He had noticed that most of the crew members have moved into place including, Garrus, Ashley, and Wrex. He stepped into the elevator. It began it's slow ascend upward.

He was ready to get this mission started, more importantly he was ready to go kick some ass. The elevator stopped, John got out. Almost everyone was at their posts.

He moved up to the cockpit, some eyes on him. He continued walking.

When he reached Joker, he put his hand on his shoulder. "Get us the hell out of here."

Thus the adventure began

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Again sorry for the short chapter, the next one will be longer, we will start to get into some combat situations etc. Hopefully my mother makes a recovery so we can get this story moving again. Sorry again.


	14. The Scientist

Ok, I'm trying to get this back on the road, I have many ideas for this chapter. If anyone is wondering, missions will slightly change, it might be more than slightly at times but hopefully they will change for the better. Lets have some fun with this chapter.

**Chapter 14: The Scientist.  
><strong>

* * *

><p>He had told Joker to set a course for Liara, it would take a couple of hours to get there from their current position but that was fine. He was already hungry for adventure and for a fight. Over the course of his time on the Normandy, he had spoken with Garrus, Nihlus, Wrex, Ashley, Kaidan, and multiple members of the crew.<p>

Garrus had helped him multiple times on the Mako, he always checked the system to see if anything was out of order. Their friendship was growing fast. Wrex had called him over to recite the battle he had on Akuze. It was hard for him to do this so he left out all of his time in the desert, how he got there, and the Marines that died in the fight.

His friendship with Wrex was growing fast also. Kaidan... Kaidan. He seemed clueless at times but at least he was not a racist bigot like Ashley. Ashley. She was beginning to trust John more but still was her racist bigot self.

Then Nihlus, in his spare time he is busy sending reports to the Council because he is a very important person a **Spectre. **Bah. The Council and their Spectres could go to hell for all he cared.

He had not talked with Tali after they had found each other. John still cared dearly about Tali, but he had no clue if Tali still liked him. He tried to reassure himself over this matter a couple of times but every time he reassured himself the thought popped in his head. 'It has been 5 years. She could have met someone else.'

Now they were getting closer to Liara's position. John had still not talked to Tali at all, Tali thought of leaving her work to find him, to talk to him. There were many questions she still had for him, like why did he have a crack on his visor.

Was he okay when she accidentally shot him down. She had those and many more. Every time she told Engineer Adams she was done, he just gave her an impressed look and gave her even more work. Not that she didn't like working on one of the most advanced ships in the Alliance fleet, she just wanted to see her friend.

Tali continued to work as a hiss came behind her, indicating that the door was being open. She turned her head to the side to see who was there. It was John, he was talking to Engineer Adams.

She looked at him remembering the boy that use to play with her on the flotilla. 'Keelah! He had grown from when I last saw him.' He started to walk towards her, his walking had changed, he now walks like a soldier.

She saw John's eyes flutter into her own. 'Keelah! I stared at him too long!' She turned back to her work and began frantically typing on her console.

John put a hand on Tali's shoulder, he remembered she must be hungry after a day of basically no food. She turned, feeling John's hand on her shoulder.

"Tali, do you need anything?"

She had noticed how tall he had gotten, the top of her head only reached up to his voice transmitter. She fidgeted before she answered. "I'm fine right now."

"Are you sure? Do you need any food or water?"

Now that she thought of it, she was kind of hungry. "I could go for some nutrient paste."

"I'll bring her back Adams!" He yelled over to Engineer Adams.

Tali and John both walked out the door, catching up on old things with each other.

Garrus and Wrex watched them walking out. They also noticed the enthusiasm in their talking.

Garrus started the conversation. "I knew it, they were mates. That hug on the Citadel was too friendly for just friends."

Wrex let out a low pitched grunt, that sounded like. "Yeah."

Wrex tinkered with his shotgun a bit longer, and noticed Garrus still watching him. "Get back to work, Vakarian."

Garrus reluctantly moved back to attend to the Mako.

Tali and John arrived at the Mess Hall, as they walked in a couple of seated crew turned to look at them. Tali was a little nervous, what would they think of the two of them together? A couple of the female crew members giggled and talked behind their hands.

Kaidan had been watching them all day, they had been talking about Shepard. John appeared to have his own fan club on the Normandy already.

Tali noticed this too, but John was completely blind to this.

Tali wasn't going to let a few **human** crew members stand between John and her. She glared at them with her eyes behind her mask. They turned back around.

They reached a smaller table, with only 2 seats to it, the one where John had sat before when he first arrived on the Normandy.

Their conversation had spiked when Tali had mentioned the fleet. They were now talking about all the fun adventures they both had on the Rayya.

Tali began to get up to get some Nutrient Paste.

John grabbed her arm. "Wait, I have something for you. Sit back and I will get it down."

She sat back down confused. She watched John move across to the Mess Sergeant. What was he going to give her? A tube of plain nutrient paste?

The Mess Sergeant reached down to one of the lower cabinets and grabbed two tubes on nutrient paste, then handed them to John.

John moved back to the table, sat down and handed her the nutrient paste over the table.

"Here, try that. A little bit flavored nutrient paste I found on the Citadel."

They both hooked it under their mask, to a tube leading to their mouth. They both squeezed it into their down to their mouth's.

When Tali first tasted it, she was surprised at the taste. It still had that plain, nasty taste but you could taste a hint of flavor. It was much better than the regular paste you get a Turian shelters. They both finished their tubes of paste.

"I never tasted anything with flavor in my life before." Tali said, putting the tube on the table.

John smiled behind his visor."Well now you know what it feels like."

"Thank you, when I was on the Citadel I had to eat the Turian Shelter's nutrient paste. It's worse than the normal kind."

John chuckled at this. "All nutrient paste is bad."

This made Tali smile behind her visor.

"So how has your family been doing, Tali?"

This made Tali's smile turn into a frown, she looked down sadly. "My mother died from an airborne virus."

John had never really met Tali's mother, but knew she was a nice woman. 'What to say...What to say.' he thought for a moment.

He put a finger under Tali's chin and raised it so he looked into her eyes. "Your mother is in a better place, she is on the home world with the Ancestors."

The feel of John's finger under her chin cheered her up slightly. She looked around John, and noticed he had knives on him.

"Isn't it a little dangerous to carry sharp objects near your suit?"

John looked up and down his body, acting like he was just noticing them. "Yeah...I guess it is. That's why I carry them."

He looked around her, trying to find something to call her out with. "Hah, talk about dangerous your still carrying my shotgun."

She fidgeted with her hands. "Do you want it back?"

He chucked at Tali's innocence. "Nah, it's yours I gave it to you remember?"

She fidgeted again, remembering when he gave it to her. The pain in his voice. Where he left her for 5 years. "I don't like to remember that day."

"It wasn't that bad...we got the ship at least."

"I didn't care about the ship! I cared about you. Why did you try to play the hero? Everyone was worried about you! Shala was worried sick about you! You were so stupid and stubborn if you only let me open that door-"

"Tali, Tali. I'm here now. We got a ship for the fleet.. a ship that was intact a good ship we didn't-"

"You were shot! Shot! Because of me!"

"Tali, if it is anyone's fault it is mine. I didn't kill them fast enough. They were after me anyways. They had contacts infiltrate the fleet and learn about my biotics. But everything is okay."

"You're a bosh'tet. You talk and act like nothing happened."

John sighed. "Five years happened. So how is Shala?"

Tali noticed he was trying to change the subject. She let out a sigh. "I was going to tell her that I'm with you but I think it would be better if you did it."

Tali gave John the information to Shala's omnitool over the table.

John fiddled with his omnitool over the table. "I wonder what she will say after 5 years."

"Where were you those 5 years...I mean after Cerberus and...after you.. were shot down."Tali could almost see in John's eyes he was looking for words.

"Wait! How do you know I was shot down? The Citadel and the Galaxy News dismissed it as a fighter that lost control."

Tali was at a loss of words, her heart dropped. She could say she heard it off someone that a Quarian had crashed inside a fighter. No. He deserved the truth.

"I...I was on the Passenger ship...that..that shot you down." Tali stammered out. "I.. I was the one who... told the Pilot to...open fire.

Anger was the first thing that fled into John's mind. Those shots from that ship, caused him to go through Batarians, Thresher maws and endure long hard 5 years on his own, nobody to care for him.

Tali saw anger flicker through John's silvery eyes before they were extinguished.

John called himself down, it was not Tali's fault. If Tali was taken by Cerberus agents, he would want to give them a small kick in the balls.

He took an inaudible deep breath. "I understand." was all he said.

Tali was puzzled. Shouldn't he be mad? "You..you do?"

"Well, yeah. If I was you, I'd want to shoot it down too. If anything I should be thanking you. I met friends, found demons in my path and conquered them. It made me stronger."

Tali became relieved. 'He was not mad!' she repeated in her mind. She wondered how he could move through all the pain and obstacles that he had on his 5 year journey.

"How...did you keep moving through.. all of the obstacles that you had." It sounded better in her mind when she said it.

John relaxed his hands on the table. "To tell you the truth, I had one thing fueling me through all the 5 years. Seeing your eyes again, seeing you again."

Tali could feel her temperature rise and her cheeks blush. She was happy she was behind this visor, at times like these so she could block some of her emotions.

Tali relaxed back in her seat. "Well now we can...finish our pilgrimage together like we said we would all those years ago. Maybe after we defeat Saren...we could go back to the fleet together."

"One step at a time, Tali. One step at a time."

* * *

><p>People started to awake from their sleeping pods. Shepard had strictly said that everyone needed to get rest before they went and got the scientist. He was quickly becoming popular in the crew, with Aliens and Non-aliens.<p>

The crew were surprised when they saw Shepard himself emerging out of a sleeping pod. He had told Tali, before he went to sleep he felt like he didn't deserve the Captains Cabin, he would rather be uncomfortable with the crew. Quarian nature.

"Good morning." John said to all after emerging from his Sleeping pod.

"Good morning, Shepard." Some of the crew said back, others saluting.

They made their way into the Crew's Quarters, most grabbed their food and sat down at their tables. John moved straight to a table and sat down alone, Garrus, Wrex, Nihlus, Tali, Kaidan and some members of the crew joined them.

"Are you going to get any food, Shepard?" Garrus asked with his mouth full of Turian food.

John just chuckled. "I'm not hungry."

John waited until they had all finished their food, for the debriefing which took a while, Garrus and Wrex kept going back for second's and thirds. He understood Wrex but Garrus? Hungry Turian or he really likes the food. They finally finished their food, most of the crew started to pile out of the Mess but Shepard held members of his team back.

"I've spoken with Flight Lieutenant Moreau, he said we will be arriving at the Scientist's position in a few minutes, I want you all to suit up and be ready. Nihlus and Tali, with me. Wrex, Garrus, and Kaidan be ready if we get into anything deep, we will call you in for reinforcements so be ready for anything."

John waited for this to sink in. "Geth has been spotted, this is not a simple grab and run mission. Any questions?"

No one responded, so he took that as a 'No'. "Alright get suited up."

They went in separate directions, John went to his locker, with Tali, Garrus and Kaidan. Wrex already had his armor on, but his weapons were in the cargo hold.

John went into his locker and retrieved armor pieces that he put over his suit. He then retrieved his rifle, and his pistol, then all of his knives. A motion he had learned over the years, he was finished before anyone else, Garrus right behind him then Kaidan.

He saw Tali was having a little trouble getting ready, he moved over in front of her, and took the armor from her hands. He placed the armor onto her body, gently then reached into her locker and gave her a pistol to put onto her belt. Once John finished helping Tali she gave him a "Thanks." and moved down to the Cargo hold.

He slowly moved to the elevator to take him down to the Cargo Hold. The elevator moved slowly down, giving him time to think about this mission. Matriarch Benezia's daughter, she could be a valuable ally or a major enemy.

The elevator reached the cargo hold where the Mako was, he moved across the hold in a swift motion to the Mako. Garrus and Tali were waiting outside. Garrus stepped up into the Mako, then John stepped up onto the Mako, then extended a hand for Tali. She took it, John pulled her up onto the Mako.

John took the drivers seat, Garrus controlled the guns, and Tali sat in the passenger seat. John gripped the steering wheel hard waiting for Joker to release them onto the planet.

* * *

><p>The ride to the dig site was uneventful encountering Armatures here Armatures there, a few Geth Rocket Troopers. None of them stood a chance against the Mako and it's calibrated weapon system.<p>

They had reached the dig site after having to climb out of the Mako and fight their way on foot to it. John raised a hand to stop Garrus and Tali as he saw a Geth hopper jump onto a wall. The noise of a Geth Drop ship came from over their heads, they watched it as it dropped a Geth Armature and a few Troopers with it.

Garrus, Tali, and John slammed their backs into any cover they could find, Garrus and John experienced in combat started to fire right away. John drained the shields and threw the geth with his biotics, while Garrus took shots at Geth with drained shields.

Tali poked her head out of cover to try to get a few shots out only being pinned back down with Geth fire. She had her back against the cold metal of a barrier. She had been trying to help in anyway she could, being able to drain the Geth's shields with John. While John and Garrus focused on the Armature she focused on the untouched Geth Hopper.

It was jumping all around, it was very annoying. While John and Garrus were distracting the Armature she managed to peak her head out of cover and she brought her pistol up with her. She was trying to follow the Geth Hopper in her pistol's sights. The Armature fell limp after all the shots Garrus and John had put into it.

Garrus and John looked to Tali, who was aiming in her pistol sights, they looked to what she was aiming at, a Geth Hopper. In mid jump from one wall to another she managed to get a shot off, which slammed into it's 'Flashlight head' making her look better than she really was.

The Hopper fell to the ground with a thud. Tali arose from cover, her stomach did a slight leap after she saw that she hit the Geth dead on. She holstered her pistol looking back to John and Garrus, who were looking at each other.

Garrus gave a small "Damn." as he and John exited from cover.

They made their way into a tube leading down into the Prothean Ruins, pipes on each side. As they made their way down the saw at the bottom of the tube were a few Geth soldiers. They easily took them out with their weapons. They stepped down onto the catwalk, rock on both sides of them.

They followed the catwalk to an open room, impressive the Protheans built this over 50,000 years ago and it was still holding together. As he was examining the architecture, two Geth drones popped out of nowhere.

John reacted first, grabbing at his pistol belt, he took both of his pistols and shot them both. By the time Garrus and Tali had their weapons drawn the drones already exploded.

John holstered his weapons and moved to the elevator. "Let's go."

They all moved into the elevator, John activated it. They made their descend down, the only thought in John's head at this time was.'Much faster than the Normandy's elevator.'

The elevator stopped just 4 feet above a catwalk, the door rose, John was the first one out, jumping down on the catwalk, following with Tali, then Garrus. In front of them, the catwalk was broken, they easily jumped down from the catwalk.

Once they were all down, they stood in front of a blue barrier curtain, with a Asari suspended in the air with her arms raised out.

She saw them and yelled out to them. "Can you hear me out there? I'm trapped! I need help!"

"I take it you are Doctor T'Soni." John replied.

"Are you real? Oh no don't be stupid, Liara. Quarians do not come here, your hallucinating. And talking to yourself." She did a reassuring laugh. "I'm going to die in here."

The first thought that went through John's mind was Dafuq? "Don't worry Doctor T'Soni, I'm real, the Council sent me to rescue you from the Geth."

"You're very vivid for a hallucination they don't usually-"

"I'm not a hallucination. I'm real and I'm here to get you out." He interrupted.

"Alright I will play along, if you are real as you say you are, get me out of here. It's a Prothean barrier curtain, I activated it because I knew it would keep me safe from the Geth, when I activated I must have hit something I shouldn't have now I became trapped."

"Don't worry you will be out in seconds." John reassured her.

John moved down towards the ground, where he saw some Geth and a mining laser. He had an idea, he didn't know if it would work but it was worth a shot.

A few Geth were near the mining laser, John drew his assault rifle and quickly mowed the Geth down. His 3 fingers ran across the mining laser controls, activating the laser, making a hole right under the Doctor leading to an elevator.

Tali and Garrus joined his side as they walked to the elevator leading to the Doctor's floor. When the elevator ascended to the Doctor's floor there was still one thought in John's mind. 'Still faster than the Normandy's elevator.'

They reached the room that Doctor T'Soni was in, she heard them approach.

"Now I am hallucinating you are in the tower with me. I must be getting worse I thought I heard thunder earlier on."

Tali looked to Garrus, Tali honestly thought the Asari was crazy, guessing by the look on Garrus's face he agreed with her.

"That was us, we activated the mining laser." John moved under the Doctor. "Garrus deactivate the curtain."

Garrus deactivated the curtain with a push of a button, causing Liara to fall into John's arms. Tali didn't like the sight of the Asari doctor in John's arms. Tali would prefer herself in John's strong arms.

"Thank you for rescuing me from the curtain. I never caught your name."

To a very relieved Tali, John tipped his arms down, allowing the Asari to get her feet on the floor. "My name is Shepard. This is Tali and Garrus."

Tali didn't want the Asari to do anything else with _her_ Shepard. "Do you..perhaps know any way to get out of this place?"

"There is an elevator back in the center of the tower... at least I think it is an elevator. It could take us out of here."

They reached the elevator right on time, rumbling started from above them. They briefed Liara on the way to the elevator.

"I still can't believe this, why would the geth come after me? Do you think Benezia is involved?"

"Saren's looking for the Conduit, and your a Prothean expert of course." Tali replied a little colder than she expected.

Liara seemed unfazed by this. "The Conduit? But I don't-" Her sentence was cut out by a large amount of rumbling above them.

"What...was that." Tali asked a little nervously.

"These ruins are not stable. The mining laser must have affected it some way. We have to get out of here quickly."

Shepard pressed his sound transmitters in his ear to open his comms. "Flight Lieutenant! Wake up! Get the Normandy airborne and lock in on my signal."

Joker replied over the comm. "Aye, aye, Shepard. ETA 8 minutes."

The elevator started to rise. Still faster than the Normandy's elevator.

They reached the floor, as it stopped they saw a Krogan Battle master approach, with Geth at his side.

The Krogan started to speak. "Surrender or don't that would be-" He was cut off by John.

"Fuck off. We are getting the hell out of here." John pulled his pistol from his side and shot a Geth Trooper beside the Krogan.

"Kill them! Spare the Asari if you can!"

The Krogan was a skilled biotic, but no match for Shepard's crew. Having basically no cover they had to fight openly. They focused on the Geth first, John taking out two, Garrus taking 1 out and Tali, to her surprise managed to down one.

John yelled back to Tali while facing the Krogan."Tali! Shotgun!"

Tali grabbed the shotgun from the small of her back, and threw it to John who caught it with one hand. He fired a the Krogan with the powerful shotgun. The Krogan did the same with his Shotgun.

John had maneuverability over strength, as he rolled to the side to dodge the Krogan's attacks. A few shots with the Shotgun managed to down the Krogan, The Krogan was left on his hands and knee's spitting blood up. John saw his opportunity to finish him.

John got a running start, he ran at the Krogan, while the Krogan was on his hands and knees. Once John reached the Krogan, he brought his foot strong foot up to the Krogan's face with a crunch that could be heard all around the room. The Krogan fell back on his back, either because he was knocked out or either because his neck was broken by the powerful kick from the Quarian.

They all ran out of the huge elevator, leaving the Krogan and his 'dead' friends there. Chunks of rock started to fall from the roof, they all continued to run.  
>John, Tali and Garrus made it to the tube leading to the surface, as they started to move up it they heard a scream from behind them.<p>

Liara! They must have left her behind. John turned to Garrus and Tali. "Get to the Normandy, I will be right back up with the Doctor."

John ran back, dodging rock falling from the ceiling. He was surprised the catwalk has not collapsed yet. As he rounded the rock corner, he saw Liara with her foot pinned under a large rock.

John ran to her, and tried to move the rock off of her. It was too heavy. He stepped back and threw the rock off of her with his biotics. He then picked her up and ran back to the tube, he put her down on her feet, in front of him. She managed to make it to the exit and get out, John right behind her. Right when John reached the exit, it collapsed in front of his face, leaving him with no exit.

"Fuck!" He remembered the Geth Rocket trooper at the end of the tube, they first killed when they came in. He ran as fast as he could back down the tube, to the Rocket Trooper laying with it's synthetic blood dripping off the catwalk. He quickly grabbed the Rocket Trooper's weapon, as a large boulder fell atop of the Rocket Trooper.

Liara made it back to the Normandy with Garrus and Tali waiting inside.

"Where's John!" Tali asked, they could tell she was scared for him.

"I thought he was right behind me!" Liara said.

They all looked to the entrance to the dig site waiting for him to reappear.

John ran as fast as he could with the rocket in his hands, the tube collapsing behind him. The rubble that blocked his path was straight in front of him. He fired the rocket, that slammed into the rubble, blasting it away. He threw the rocket aside, running through the rubble.

"Yes!" He had made it out of the dig site, but his happiness was short lived as he saw a new problem. Lava.

He could see the Normandy, it was not far. He could make it! He ran down the catwalk back onto the ground, lava was closing in on both sides. He could now see Tali, Garrus and Liara beckoning him forward with their arms.

He ran the Normandy was only a few feet away, the lava was getting closer. He ran and jumped with all of his energy left in him, into the Normandy.

"Go Joker! Go!" He shouted into his comm.

As they flew away from the accursed planet, John never wanted to see again Garrus spoke up.

"You called Joker, Joker."

"Looks like I did, Vakarian."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** There was your little mission change, looks like Tali became a little jealous of Liara. Hopefully I will get more stories up a little faster. Until then, tell me how you feel about the Chapter.


	15. Problems

Thanks to everyone that reviewed the last chapter, I was gone for a couple of days so I didn't get anything done, but have new ideas. Whenever I see I get reviews, negative or positive it makes me want to work on the story more, but despite the amount of reviews I will post chapters. And we might have a competition between Liara and Tali for Shepard just need to think how to play it out.

**Chapter 15: **Problems.

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><p>All of the members of Shepard's team sat in a room, they had to pull up an extra chair for Nihlus. Joker's voice rang out from the intercom in the room. "A few more seconds and we would be swimming in molten lava-"<p>

John cut him off. "Joker, not now."

Liara cut into the conversation."We almost died out there and your pilot is trying jokes?"

"He did pull our asses out of there, I think he earned the right."

Liara shifted in her seat. "Ah, must be a human thing. I have not dealt with their race much. I am grateful to you, Shepard. You did not only save me from the volcano and the geth, but you went back for me when the cavern was collapsing."

Kaidan spoke from across the room. "Do you have any idea what the Conduit is?"

"Only that it is connected to the Prothean extinction. I have spent the past 50 years trying to figure out what happened to them."

"They were destroyed by a sentient race of machines called the Reapers. All evidence of their disappearance was erased by the Reapers." John put down flatly.

Liara seemed shocked at first. "The- The Reapers? I have never- How do you know this? What evidence do you have?"

John remembered the thoughts and pain that flashed through his body at the time he encountered the beacon."Back on Eden Prime a damaged Prothean beacon burned a vision into my mind, a very scrambled vision of death and destruction of the Prothean Empire. It exploded after it transmitted the vision to me, I was knocked unconscious by the blast. "

Tali had not been told about Eden Prime or the Prothean beacon. She knew that finding a working Prothean beacon was worth a lot, even if it was damaged.

The information John had said dawned on Liara. "That would make sense, Prothean Beacons were meant to transmit messages, finding a working beacon even if damaged is very valuable. The vision was likely very disorientating, a lesser mind would be overcame with the vision. You must be remarkably strong willed, Shepard."

Ashley's patients with the Asari grew short. "Get to the point, what do you know about Saren and the Conduit."

"By Shepard's vision I think he might be trying to bring back the Reapers with the Conduit."

"So we have to find this Conduit before he does." Kaidan simply added.

"Yes, basically. Saren knows that Shepard was touched by the beacon on Eden Prime, he probably came after me because he feared I could be able to help you understand it. I could come in handy if we encounter more Prothean technology."

Wrex spoke up for the first time. "Her biotics will come in handy if we get into a fight."

"Well then, Doctor T'Soni, welcome aboard."

"Thank you, Shepard I am very gratef-" Liara let out a pained sigh. "I am afraid I am feeling a little light headed."

John grabbed her to stabilize her. "When was the last time you slept, or ate? Go see Doctor Chakwas.

"It is just probably mental exhaustion, coupled with the shock of discovering the Protheans' true fate. I need some time to process this."

"No, go see Chakwas get a little rest, a few balanced meals in you, then you can worry about the Protheans. We can talk later.- Dismissed!"

They all went their separate directions when they went out the door, Liara staggered off to go see Chakwas, while John remained in the room with Nihlus, receiving a call from the Council.

Tali replayed the events in her mind, it was pretty simple what they had to do now, find the Conduit before Saren brought back the Reapers and doomed the entire galaxy with absolute annihilation. She had complete faith in John to lead them through this. One thing she knew about John was that he would not quit... no matter what.

Tali also remembered the moment in the meeting where Liara became ''lightheaded'' and needed John to stabilize her. Was she really lightheaded? Or was she just doing it to get under her skin. Tali was not sure, Tali knew John was not like most Quarians; Not only did he have biotics, which the fleet has not seen in 300 years, but he was different. Cerberus did something to him. Maybe it was because he was taller than most Quarians, or looked better built.

But if Liara was attracted to him, why? An Asari and a Quarian? It was obvious that he showed no interest in her. Or did he? Tali couldn't read him like she use to. With the last conversation she had with John, Tali thought that he still had an interest in her. Tali knew she still had an interest in him.

What would change between the two of them in 5 years? It was 5 years, but John had said that the memory of Tali kept him moving through the toughest times of 5 years.

Tali had never thought she would have her thoughts consumed this much... it was too much. All she needs to do is focus on the mission in front of her. The bond that Tali had with John was still there, burning brighter than ever. Isn't that what it is? Didn't they take a class on this in the Flotilla? When another Quarian was bonded with another, they thought about them a lot.

Tali moved to her terminal in Engineering. She tried to push the thoughts to the back of her mind as she started working.

"The complete destruction of a valuable Prothean Ruin? Was that necessary?" The Turian Councilor asked.

John could count at least 1,000 places he would rather be than answering to the Council. "There were geth in the ruins all behind us, we did what we had to do to get the scientist. Nothing more, Nothing less."

The Salarian Councilor was a little less bias to John. "We understand the mission comes first, Shepard but can we really trust her?"

John let out a sigh, it was almost like they were ignorant. "The geth were trying to kill her. Saren's orders."

The Asari Councilor started. "Matriarch Benezia would never allow the geth to kill her daughter, Agent Nihlus we expect a constant report of this mission." With that the comms cut out plunging the room in darkness.

Nihlus turned to face John, John could see that he turned out of the corner of his eye. "Shepard can I have a word with you?"

John turned to face Nihlus. "Were here right now aren't we?"

"Well, I have read your file. You have encountered Batarians before."

John folded his arms. "What are you getting at, Nihlus?"

"Well you have faced a similar problem. You have been trying to find someone for a few years."

"Get to the point, Nihlus."

"About a year ago my sister, Zarani Kryik went missing after she went to a human colony, shortly after she arrived at the colony, Batarian slavers arrived they took almost everyone in the colony including Zarani. I have been looking for her ever since. Now I think I have a lead to where she might be. I could maybe board another ship and go if-"

John understood his struggle. He personally hated Batarians for all that they have done, nothing but no good slavers and mercs. "We can take some time out of the mission and go. It wouldn't take that long, we just hit the Batarians and get your sister, free any other slaves and get out."

"Thank you, Shepard."

"We could go after we go see what is happening at Feros. Then we can stop by Noveria after we get your sister."

John left the room, satisfied of what he was going to do. He could get some points with a Spectre and he could kick some four cheeked Batarian ass.

John approached the cockpit. "Joker, set a course for Feros best possible speed."

"Aye, Aye." Joker fiddled with the controls in the cockpit for a second. "Is everything okay, Shepard?"

John, taken by surprise by this question. "Yeah, why?"

"Oh, just making sure. You usually don't call me Joker, did you let your hair down today?"

John was confused by the last part of his sentence, must be a human saying. "What are you talking about, my hair is inside a helmet it can't come down, with that my hair is not very long."

Joker shook his head. "No I meant- ugh never mind."

John walked away, feeling the humming of the Normandy under his feet, they were underway to some Human colony that went dark. He really had no idea what this had to do with him, but he guessed getting the best ship in the Alliance fleet, had it's costs. And now he had to pay them.

They started to leave the system of Knossos, one of four systems in the Artemis Tau cluster. All of them uncharted. It would take them more than a few hours to get back to the Mass Relay.

A few people John had told to give check-ups to what was going on around the Normandy included, Adams, Chakwas and Garrus.

He moved over to talk to them, speaking with Adams first. Adams a calm man, John trusted him and Adams trusted him back, or just Anderson's judgement to give him the Normandy.

Chief Engineer Adams spoke up when John approached. "Tali has made herself quite at home in the Engine room."

"Is that giving you any problem, Adams?"

"Not at all, sir." Adams shook his head side to side. "She knows more about the ship's systems than my entire crew put together. Only if they were half as smart as her, she keeps to herself mostly. The only problem is that, some of my men can't concentrate due to them wondering what's under her mask. Some of them have bizarre ideas."

John grinned slightly under his mask. "Is that all, Adams?"

"Oh! Before I forget, Tali has been moving a little slower than usual but her work is still above average, could you maybe talk to her and see what's going on?" Adams added.

"Sure Adams, Chakwas?"

Chakwas noticed her key to begin. "All the new crew members passed inspection, including you. You and Tali were a little more difficult than the rest, due to your suits, both of your suits were equipped with numerous medical computers and enhancements. I got the basic scan on you and Tali, both of you has mentioned that you have numerous implants to assist your immune system. I think both of you are fine."

"Anything else, Chakwas?"

"Yes, there is. When I scanned you, I noticed that you are different than most Quarians, for one you have biotics. At first I thought this was a malfunction in the system, but scanning a little more thoroughly it was not malfunctioning. Your height and build is different from most Quarians, most of them are slightly shorter and lesser build of the Humans but the scan depicts that your height and build is that of a human, if that even a little bigger."

Cerberus and their damn genetic tampering. "Is that a problem?"

"Not at all, but considering you are only 21 soon to turning 22, you still might grow you might need a bigger suit. And with that new suit, you might want to think about getting a new visor, the one you have looks like it's been through hell and back."

"New suit, maybe new visor, no. Garrus?"

"To be honest, Wrex is..." Garrus searched for the right wording. "Difficult to say the least. Most of the time he sits around and argues almost everything, he harasses the crew members, Ashley."

"Well what do you expect? He is a Krogan, it's his nature. Plus the Turians almost ended their race with help from the Salarians, your lucky he has some self control or he would eat your mandibles or something."

"Could you talk with him for the sake of everyone?"

"I will see what I can do. Dismissed!"

Throughout the conversation with his crew he tried to hide the slight cough and fever he had, apparently while he was underground a bullet had skimmed his arm, just enough to rip the suit, not enough to break skin. He had not noticed it at all, now he is facing the consequences. At least he had cleaned and sealed his arm and suit before anything too serious happened, he was only facing a minor cold.

If he is able to accomplish this mission he might make a major statement for the Quarian people to show that they weren't all scavengers and thieves, but a people that hold their own, a people that adapt to a different way of life. But he could mess up, he could complete the mission and still get a bad name for the Quarians.

There was a lot of weight on his shoulders.

He wandered carelessly through the top deck. Having a look at the Captain's Quarters, way too much than he deserved. He continued moving, exploring the things he missed when he first came on the Normandy.

A few thoughts came up as he wandered through the top deck. He knew The Council were just using him to bring down their top agent. They could have used a Spectre to lead this mission, but they had not. He had gotten the mission, with maybe a thrown in word from Nihlus.

He moved towards the elevator after spending a good amount of time talking to people and moving about the top deck. He stepped inside and activated the button in the elevator to bring him to the lower decks, to address the problems that were at hand. Wrex and not so much as a problem Tali.

Garrus worked on the Mako, receiving negative comments from Wrex, that sat behind him, watching his every movement.

"Double check when you calibrate the weapons, Turian. If that gun fails, we will die and I will kick your ass." Wrex grunted from behind Garrus.

Garrus was on the brink of insanity, or what felt like it. He had enough of the Krogan's comments. "Wrex-" The sound of the elevator opening stopped him from saying his sentence.

John approached both of them."Something wrong with you two?"

"Vakarian does not know how to calibrate simple weapons." Wrex piped up first.

"My calibration is just fine! Never insult my calibrating!" Garrus's mandibles clicked in frustration.

John closer to them. "Alright, calibrating is the issue. Okay, move Garrus."

He looked over Garrus's work, it was alright but some improvements could be done.

John fingers moved across Garrus's calibrating system, easy work for an engineer like him, too easy. In a matter of seconds he was done.

"There, no more problems, Wrex try not to harass other crew members."

He only got a grunt from Wrex, which he knew would be the best the Krogan would give.

John started to move towards the back of the cargo bay, to where the colossal Drive Core took most of the space. He heard from Wrex behind him.

"So, Williams could you beat Shepard in a fight?"

Ashley's answer was drowned out as he entered the pulsing, vibrating room where the drive core sat.

Adams turned to him,`John only nodded and said. "Just checking up on everything."

John turned to see Tali walking towards him, from her terminal near the drive core.

She quickly moved to beside him, she started speaking very fast."I'm starting to see why Humans are so successful! I had no idea that Alliance vessels were so advanced! I would have never dreamed of traveling on a ship as advanced as the Normandy! I wonder how they managed to fit that size of a drive core inside the Normandy!"

"Yes, I wondered the same thing when I first came aboard the Normandy. It is quite amazing compared to the ships of the Migrant Fleet."

"I know! I wish we got to work with something advanced when we were on the Flotilla."

She moved closer to John, and whispered almost conspiratorially. "I was wondering If I could get a closer look."

"Did you ask Adams?"

She quickly responded. "He said to ask you."

"I don't see anything bad, if you want to help Adams and his crew you will need to know the Normandy's Systems."

"Thank you, John!"

"Oh and Tali one more thing. Is anything wrong, Adams noticed you were moving a little more groggily than usual."

"Well...um, John you haven't?" She asked. "I mean the Normandy is so quiet compared to the ships back home. There are so many things constantly humming, if there is silence it usually means that the ship's drive as shut down, or worse the air filter is no longer working. I suppose I will get use to all the quiet..." She paused a couple of seconds before throwing in. "And the ship is so... empty. Sometimes when I wake up and I believe I am back home for a couple of seconds and believe the crew is gone, or something has stopped working." She trailed off. "It's not important you have been able to deal with it."

"Tali, it matters, the well-being of my crew, all of my crew is important to me. And I am not dealing with it well, it might not be the ship, but something is haunting my dreams causing me to wake up. I just try to go back to sleep, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."

"What exactly are you seeing in your dreams?" Tali asked curiously.

"Things that I have tried to forget over, but failed. Don't worry about me, it will be with me all my life. I think I know a way for you to sleep. You can get a recording of some sound off the fleet, or some busy place. Or you could sleep in the Captains Quarters, the Captain's Quarters bed is alot softer than the sleeping pod, and I never use it either."

'Sleep in his quarters? It would be much more comfortable than a pod, and I could sleep much better.' Tali thought. "But it's your quarters, I..-" She trailed off.

"Tali, I sleep in a pod, you can have my quarters."

'What would the crew think if they saw me coming out of the Captain's Quarters?' "I... I don't know I have to think about it."

"Tali, if it is your well-being you need to do it, either the recording or the bed. Think about it. Well I better let you get back to work, see you later Tali." John said, very concerned about Tali.

"Okay, John. See you later. Thank you for listening."

John left the room, Tali moved back to her terminal.

Adams started laughing from his terminal.

"What's so funny, Adams?" Tali called back to him.

"Two things." He replied. "Shepard lets you call him John?"

"Well...yes."

"And whenever he enters the room you sway your hips." Adams said to her, obviously humored by it.

Tali blushed behind her visor. "Oh, I do... I didn't notice."

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><p><strong>AN: **Sorry for the wait, I injured my left hand on Friday and was not able to get anything done. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, a little shorter than usual.


	16. Entering Noveria

**Ok, I've been gone for a while but I want to keep moving this story along, you can expect me to be working on it now. This will be a short chapter just to get me moving again.**

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><p><strong>Entering Noveria.<strong>

Tali had taken John up on his offer to give his quarters to her; she had tried to sleep in the pod but with no avail. She had not seen John in any of the pods, what if he finally started sleeping in the Captain's Quarters?

She moved across the Mess Hall towards where the Captain's Quarters, she gave a quick glance inside and saw a figure sitting at the table. The lighting was not perfect but what she could make out she saw someone looming over their omni-tool facing the opposite direction.

From the orange light she made out a figure, with a helmet and Quarian like body features, she moved into the Mess to see who it was, but she already knew.

'John must be up late doing some work.' She said to herself as she moved across the Mess closer to John. John appeared to be sitting at the table in the middle, and apparently the only one in the room besides her.

She reached the table where John sat, He was not yet alerted to her presence in the room, but years of combat experience felt something peering at him, something behind him. He turned to the feeling, very alertly for how tired he felt.

"Oh hey Tali." He closed his omni-tool, the orange light ceasing to be plunged the room into a darker state. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh..." She said slightly startled from his immediate turn. "I couldn't sleep."

"I couldn't either; I haven't been able to sleep in a couple of days."

"I noticed you were more tired than usual." A slight pause hung in the air between the two of them before Tali spoke up again. "So what were you doing on your omni-tool?" She asked curiously.

"I was just sending… trying to send a message to Shala, I haven't talked to her yet."

"Do you need any help?" Tali sat down beside John.

"Sure… I'm just not sure how to start the message out, I mean it's been 5 years since I last spoke to her I don't want to sound stupid."

Tali found it funny that John, a man that has conquered the unknown does not how to start a simple message. Tali scooted her chair closer to John. "What about start out with a simple hello?"

"That would work but what if it wasn't enough? What if she doesn't remember me?" John reopened his omni-tool, orange light flooding across the wall and table and illuminating his visor and suit.

"John… if I was basically your mother and my closest thing to a son went missing I would not forget that fast."

"Alright, I just don't know what to say to her, that I'm alright or something? I just don't know."

"Um… let me see." John slid his omni-tool off his arm and gave it to Tali. She started to move her fingers fast across the omni-tool, composing a message for him.

After a couple of minutes of continuous typing she had finished the message and handed the omni-tool back to John to look over.

John looked over the message Tali had composed on his omni-tool for him, it was better than anything he could write. "Thanks, Tali you really saved me there but I think you misspelled something."

"Hmm? One second." She saw her chance to get closer to John; she moved out of her chair over to John and sat down on his right leg. "Let me see"

She pulled John's arm over to her; she put his arm down in her lap and typed onto the omni-tool. She gave it finishing touches "And there, that should fix it."

She pressed down on send and closed his omni-tool plunging them once again into darkness. She turned back to look directly into John's eyes, his glowing silvery eyes. Even his dark visor could not tint his eyes, and with his eyes he looked directly back into Tali's beautiful silvery eyes.

For that moment they enjoyed each other's company, John pulled Tali closer to him, they were basically chest to chest now. And neither one of them had a care in the world at that moment.

They began to lose track of time, seconds became minutes and they were lost in each other's gaze. Their eyes were locked and they spoke more than words could ever.

Their loving gaze was broken as light flooded into the room, someone must have come in for a midnight snack.

Tali jumped off John's lap as no other than Garrus came in. He looked at Tali and to John guessing what must have been going on during the ship's silent night.

"Am I interrupting something?" Garrus's mandibles turned into what was a Turian smirk.

Tali recovered first quickly stammering out. "Uh….No…I was…I was just leaving."

Tali quickly ran out of the room leaving Garrus and John alone. Garrus started to chuckle, a very distorted laugh compared to any other race's laugh.

John began to stand. "What's so funny, Vakarian?" John asked with a little edge in his voice, Garrus ruined a great moment.

Garrus continued to laugh, not noticing the edge in the Quarian's voice. "Tali and You should get a room, is the Mess really an appropriate place for this?"

"I don't know what you are talking about; she was just helping me send a message to a family friend."

Garrus muttered as John began to walk out of the room. "She was helping you indeed."

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><p>John awoke from his pod; he climbed out groggily, not getting much sleep at all. He recalled the events of last night; John honestly thought he was falling in love with Tali all over again, once 5 years ago, and now.<p>

By Tali's actions last night John could tell she loved him back. He had awoken a little earlier than the rest of the crew, maybe Tali was sleeping in his quarters or maybe she was awake.

He pulled his head out of the clouds as he set off to find Tali and maybe talk with her, he had no idea what he was going to say, he just wanted to see her.

He looked in the sleeping pods, he found no Tali. He moved out of the room towards the Captain's Quarters. The Mess Hall's lights were turned off so Garrus must have gone back to bed after John left.

He continued towards the Captain's Quarters, reaching the door to the quarters. He tried as silently as possible to activate and open the door, so he could move in and not awake any residence inside.

He opened the door flinching at the sound of the loud swishing noise when the doors slid apart. Looking through the dim lighting of the quarters he saw a figure curled up into a ball on the couch to the side.

Tali was probably trying to conserve space, almost every Quarian on the Flotilla had to and she still had the instinct to do so.

John moved closer towards the couch and looked upon Tali's sleeping figure; he had an urge to join her on the couch, but ignored it.

John reached out and gingerly grabbed under Tali's legs, and with his other arm he put his hand on Tali's back, gently lifting Tali off the couch and onto the bed.

John put Tail down onto the bed and moving her body into a more comfortable position, he rested her head down onto the big, soft, white pillow. Her head lulled onto its side.

The bed was big compared to Tali's small figure it was almost like the bed was made for two…

John left the room for Tali to sleep. He moved back over into the Mess to do his thinking. _

Tali awoke feeling the soft mattress beneath her body, a soothing feeling, her body was the second most comfortable she's ever been, the first being in the arms of John.

She her heard skipped a beat when she thought of John, last night. It was one night where she finally felt safe, being in his arms again.

She brought her head out of the stars and forced herself up off the bed, for a day of work was ahead. She brought her arms over her helmet and stretched, releasing a slight moan of pleasure at the stretching.

Tali hoped that she awoke early enough to get to the mess before the crew did, what would the crew say if they saw her out of the Captain's Quarters.

The doors slid open, Tali walked out of the quarters and into the mess, luckily for her only a few people were awake, Garrus and John, they were discussing something out of earshot, it looked like Garrus's mandibles were drawn in what it looked like a Turian smile.

Garrus turned to see Tali immerging from around the corner, his mandibles spreading wider. Tali assumed they were talking about her.

She moved to the table by herself and waiting, turning her audio receptors up on her suit. John cast a side glance to her must have saw what she did and immediately stopped talking, breaking up the conversation with Garrus.

John moved over to Tali's table and sat down across from her. "Hey, how'd you sleep?"

His voice blasted into her ears, she turned her audio receptors down quickly. "I slept okay…I noticed I awoke on the bed…but I fell asleep on the sofa, did you have anything to do with that?"

He smiled knowingly. "Maybe, maybe not."

She grinned slightly knowing he was joking. "So what were Garrus and you talking about?"

He thought for the right words to say nothing came to mind. "Oh we were just…talking about the ship, yeah."

She cocked her head sideways."Please, John I can tell when you're lying."

Luckily around this moment most of the crew swept into the Mess, causing a line at the Mess Sergeant, making much noise of talking and feet hitting the floor.

"Oh, do you now?"

John's omni-tool glowed, Jokers voice sparking up from the light. "We'll be reaching Noveria in an hour."

John turned to Tali. "Uhh...I better go make myself useful for when the ship lands on Noveria" He rose from the seat and walked off into a different direction.

Tali shook her head, it was like he was always trying to avoid her these days, running off to some place. She just didn't understand him anymore like she understood him when they were kids.

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><p>John was down in the cargo hold messing with the Mako, he'd always thought best when he was working with tools. He was drawing the information from what he read about Noveria, a cold planet.<p>

John hoped that some geth were there, even Matriarch Benezia, his skinned itched for combat. He chuckled slightly at the thought, it was like he was becoming a krogan.

He moved to his locker, he grabbed some armor that he attached onto his suit, and his weapons on his belt, they were most likely nearing Noveria.

* * *

><p>John stepped out of the Normandy with Nihlus and Wrex, John thought it might be useful to bring Nihlus along because he was a Spectre.<p>

They started to move around the hanger, away from the Normandy where they ran into two humans and a turian.

"Hand over your weapons. Now." The blonde human demanded.

"I don't think we're going to be able to do that, Ma'am." John said calmly.

"I don't think you understood me Quarian. Hand over your weapons, your kind always causes trouble."

Nihlus, reading the Shepard's thoughts quickly took a step in between them before Shepard could lunge at the ignorant human.

"Spectre Nihlus." Nihlus said quickly. "These are my associates and I believe that Spectres are aloud to carry weapons."

"Prove it." the Blonde woman spat out.

A voice rang out on the intercom. "Let them through."

The Blonde woman stood there, staring at them angrily. John pushed past Nihlus and shoved the Blonde woman out of the way pushing her back a couple of steps.

"Let's go." He said as he walked off.

A woman quickly stepped out and extended a hand. "Gianna Parasini, nice to meet you."

John stared at the hand for a moment. "John'Shepard nar Rayya." He shook her hand.

"We're here for a Matriarch, Matriarch Benezia. We have reports of her working with Saren. Have you seen here recently?"

Gianna paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. "Oh, she has recently traveled to Peak 15. Though you won't be able to get there without a garage pass. There is also a storm, it's best to stay inside."

"We don't have time for storms and we especially don't have time for your 'garage passes'. I don't think you understand, we're on an important mission." Shepard exclaimed.

"I know...you could talk to Anoleis for a pass."

John briskly walked off to find Anoleis for a pass, shaking his head at all the human ignorance that has been displayed today.


	17. Noveria

**Sat down with a cup of hot tea, relaxed back in my seat and started to work on this chapter. Pretty relaxing, hope you enjoy Chapter 17.**

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><p>John cursed under his breath as him and his squad made their way to Anoleis. He was imagining what the Matriarch could be doing up at Peak 15. They made their way through a door leading to Anoleis's office flanked with two Turian guards, both armed with Assault Rifles.<p>

They found Gianna Parasini behind her desk working on her computer. Without looking up from her work she asked "How can I help you?"

"I need to speak with Anoleis."

"One moment, please." She pressed down on a button on her desk. "Mr. Anoleis?"

Almost a second later a frustrated voice of a Salarian was upon them. "Yes! What? What?"

"The Quarian and Spectre are requesting to see you, sir."

"Right, fine, come in."

John immediately took a disliking to Anoleis. John had always hated business men.

They made their way through doors that automatically opened for them, revealing a Salarian sitting down behind a desk.

"You'll excuse me if I don't stand up." Anoleis said quickly. "I have no time to entertain anyone, especially a Quarian."

"Watch your tongue, or I'll pull it out myself. I'm here on council business, keep that in mind." John countered.

"Believe me that is foremost in my mind."

"Spectre Nihlus and I are conducting an investigation. It's a matter of galactic security"

Before Anoleis could come back with a witty remark, John quickly said. "I heard that an Asari Matriarch is here, Benezia."

"Oh, yes. Her escort and she are up at Peak 15."

"So she has body guards with her, presuming some of her followers, Asari Commandos. Well…that's going to provide some difficulty." Nihlus said.

"Good. More people to fight." Wrex observed.

John turned and started walking away. "We can handle Commandos. Thank you for your time, Anoleis."

"About time, I have received multiple urgent messages while you were dithering about."

As they were walking away from Anoleis's office a voice came from behind them, the voice belonging to Gianna Parasini. "Mr. Anoleis isn't the only one that has a pass to leave Hanshan. You can't bludgeon your way through bureaucracy, Shepard."

"Alright then, how do I get a pass?"

She looked around to check if anyone was there. "Speak to Lorik Qui'in, he's usually around the hotel bar. I can't say anymore, not within the earshot of Mr. Anoleis." She whispered

"Thank you." John and his team had a new objective, find Lorik Qui'in.

They jogged their way across the courtyard, the hotel being right across from Anoleis's office, it was not too hard to find.

Once the automatically opening doors spun open, a blast of music and talking reached their ears they saw an old Turian sitting at a table by himself, sipping his glass of something blue.

"Lorik Qui'in?" John asked.

He turned to get a better look at the person saying his name. "Afternoon, What can I do for you?"

"Are you Lorik Qui'in? I've been all around this damn place and I've heard you can help me."

Lorik looked at John's squad with his beady Turian eyes. "So you're the Quarian that has just arrived? What could an old Turian like me possibly do for you?"

"I'm here on Council business and I need to get into the garage. I have places to be."

"Oh, you need a pass, how fortuitous. I'm the manager of the local Synthetic Insights office. Mr. Anoleis closed my office-"

John interrupted him in mid-sentence. "So you need us to get your office back for you?"

"Yes, some of Anoleis's hired goons are in my office at the moment, so be prepared. His goons are ransacking my office to try to find evidence of that I have acquired on Anoleis. If you recover the evidence I will give you my garage pass and a sum of credits."

"Keep your credits; we're just here for the pass. I will be back soon with your evidence."

"Here is the pass to get into the office, just swipe it on the door and it will open. My evidence is on the computer, just insert the card onto the computer and it will auto-terminate."

John reached out and took the card from Lorik Qui'in's hand. "I guess we'll be off then." John and his crew started walking off towards the office.

Lorik Qui'in called after them "And do try to keep the blood stains off the carpet!"

John smiled slightly and muttered under his breath. "No promises."

* * *

><p>As they turned the corner to the Synthetic Insights office they spotted 3 guards up ahead. John, Nihlus and Wrex quickly closed the distance between them.<p>

The female guard stepped forth. "We will not permit you to move into the Synthetic Insights office. It is currently under investigation by Mr. Anoleis."

John smiled slightly; it was time to work his magic. "Get out of our way or I'll personally slit your throat myself. Is working for Anoleis really worth losing your life for?"

She chuckled nervously. "We have more guards behind us, you're outnumbered you couldn't possibly defeat us."

"Are you that stupid? You do know the Council sent us and the Council only sends the best. I've faced more than petty guards on a fucking block of ice called Noveria."

The guard was shivering slightly. "Shoot them!"

John and his crew drew their weapons from their belt quicker than the guards could. "Stop, before we kill you."

The guards froze. "We'll leave, just please don't shoot!"

John walked closer to the female guard, where the barrel of his pistol was directly against her head. "First a few questions, where is Lorik Qui'in's computer?"

"Uh…" John pushed the barrel tighter to her head. "Upstairs! But there are guards all up and down there, you'll need us to get up there!"

John saw that the woman had leverage over them. "You've already tried to kill us once, I can't trust you."

"I promise you can trust me! I won't do anything!"

"I think we can show ourselves the way, thanks." John pulled the trigger of his pistol, spreading the guard's blood all over the wall and floor.

Nihlus and Wrex followed suit and shot the other two guards, they fell to the ground with a soft thud.

"The other guards probably have heard the shots; we should prepare to make our defense." Nihlus said.

"Nonsense we can take them!" Wrex shouted out as he charged toward the guards. "Aaarrrr!"

Nihlus and John turned too; they looked at each other for a moment and ran after Wrex.

Multiple gunshots rang out in the room ahead of them. Coming into the room Nihlus and John looked around. "It looks as if Wrex cleared the way for us, Shepard."

Wrex was waiting for them to catch up; bodies sprawled across the ground, blood on the walls and floor. "So much for keeping blood off the carpet."

They quickly put the card into the laptop to destroy the data; a soft beep indicated it was done. "Alright let's get our pass."

Wrex said from behind John. "That was easy enough not much of a fi-"

John threw up a hand to silence Wrex. He could hear voices below them.

"Well, well, well. Looks like the Quarian beat us here. Come out! Now!" A feminine voice yelled in their direction.

John went down the stairs to meet with this woman. He chuckled softly and tilted his head to the side, mockingly.

He saw the blonde woman he'd first met at the port, no surprise to him at all she was corrupted.

"Anoleis would throw you offworld for what you've done to his best troops."

"Anoleis won't be in office long enough to see me off world. I've never really liked dirty cops like you." John said smugly.

"So you're a cop killer and you've threatened Anoleis. Maybe I'll save Anoleis the time and kill you, MYSELF!" With that she sent a biotic wave towards them.

John, Nihlus, and Wrex easily rolled out of the way into cover. John shouted out from behind cover. "You're going to have to try better than that if you want to kill me!"

John immerged from cover, pistol in hand he fired 3 shots to the woman; her shields blocked it from hitting her. One of her Turian cronies tried to charge John.

Blue energy from John's biotics developed around him, John lifted him high off the ground and threw him with bone shattering force at the wall. A sickly crunch was heard throughout the room.

He then used his biotics to pick up a nearby crate and slam it into the Woman, breaking her shields and making her topple over.

"As I said, I never liked Dirty Cops." She was developed in the blue energy; she was slammed into the ground with a crunch and sent into a nearby crate.

She stumbled out of the crate, her arm hanging limply at her side. She had enough time to look John in his silvery eyes as he plunged the knife into her neck. She gave him a surprised

He pushed his hand over her mouth and lowered her to the ground softly. "Keelah se'lai." He pushed her eyelids down, and closed her opened mouth.

A human guard was sneaking behind John quietly, his pistol raised to John's back. He needed to get a little closer to penetrate through his shields…

John felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He'd learned well, to trust his instinct. He stood up quickly but was stopped by the barrel of a pistol.

"Put your hands up and-"

John reached behind him grabbed the guard by the neck and flipped him over his shoulder, the guard landed on the ground with a thud.

John plunged the knife into the guard's abdomen. He rested the guards head on his leg and quietly whispered into his ear. "Should've taken the shot."

The only reply John got was a gurgling noise from the guard as he drowned on his own blood. The sound reminded him when he was on Akuze, the gurgling noise someone made when a body part was severed.

"Sssh." John said quietly in the ear of the guard. The sound of the card dying hurt him on the inside a little.

A twitch of anger flashed through him, he was being weak. He grabbed the guards head and twisted it sideways, an inhumane cracking sounded out in the room.

"Hahaha, Shepard!" A gleeful Wrex roared.

"Sssh." John pointed his pistol directly at Wrex and fired.

Wrex moved quickly out of the way. "What the H-"

John interrupted Wrex before he could finish his sentence. "Behind you."

Wrex looked at where he'd been standing and surely enough a Turian guard was slumped on the ground, blood leaking out from his head.

"Thanks, but I could've handled him, Shepard. I am a Krogan."

John turned away and holstered his weapon. "I guess that was the Turian 'reinforcement'." Putting emphasis on reinforcement.

He scanned over the dead guards and groaned in annoyance. He turned away from the scene and walked out of the bloody room.

* * *

><p>John walked out of Synthetic Insights, brushing his Environmental suit off with his hands.<p>

To his surprise he saw Gianna Parasini blocking the stairs to get back down to the courtyard. "Shepard, we've had complaints of noise coming from the Synthetic Insights office. Do you happen to know anything about that?"

"Just tying up a few loose ends, if I were you I'd send a cleanup team, one that doesn't ask questions." He started walking down the stairs.

"Meet me at the hotel for a drink after I finish some work, before you talk to Lorik Qui'in."

"I'll see you there, then."

John and his crew made their way down to the hotel. He quickly waved them off, told them to enjoy themselves while they wait for Gianna. They had about an hour to wait.

John made his way to a lone booth. He sat down to think about what had just happened. He turned his audio receptors down all the way, so no sound made it through to disturb him. He rested his helmet on his folded hands.

He was disgusted with himself. He'd never thought about Akuze this much and usually didn't feel sorrow for his enemies. He wasn't trained to feel sorrow, he was trained to kill. He needed to fix the problem quickly before it was able to stop him from doing his work.

It was like he was getting soft. He quickly waved the idea away; he needed to be quick and ruthless to destroy his enemies…but the look on the human's face as he slid the knife into the abdomen. The gurgling of blood. The surprise on the blonde woman's face when he slipped the knife into her throat, the crunch of the Turian's body against the wall. Usually he'd be congratulating himself on these nice kills, but it was different.

"The Turian bastard better be fucking grateful." He muttered.

'I cannot afford to be weak.' He told himself over and over again in his head. Tali's named popped up in his head, he shook his head slightly. She was weakening him, making him fall for her. If he wanted to be proficient again he must sever this beyond friendship liking for her.

'No I don't have time for relationships; I'm on the most important mission of my life I can't afford to be close to anyone. I'll just hurt them, like I've hurt everyone else.'

He closed his eyes for a moment, collecting himself. He opened his eyes and turned went back to business. He turned up his audio receptors and looked around, checking for any sign of Gianna. He ignored some people staring at him from their seats and whispering behind their hands.

No sign of her yet. It looked like Wrex was enjoying himself, he was at the bar drinking huge glass bottles of red, orange, and purple liquids.

Nihlus was in a corner, a small shot glass beside him with a blue liquid in it. He was on his omni-tool, no doubt sending a report to the Council.

John walked around pointlessly around the bar, taking in all the details. Not a variety of Aliens here, mostly Humans. John shook his head as they ran around, drunken making fools of themselves. He could see why the other species didn't think highly of the Humans.

Gianna walked in at that moment and sat down in a booth slightly away from the rest of everyone; John sat down in the opposite seat.

"I'm not who you think I am." She said, ordering a drink. "Do you want a drink?"

"I prefer not to drink that poison, especially from a human bar."

"Alright, I'm undercover for the executive board to look into Anoleis's corruption."

"I understand have you found much on Anoleis?"

"He's a crook, not a moron! He doesn't keep logs on his computer that he's stolen 3 million credits this past week."

"What do you want me to do about that?"

"If you could get Lorik Qui'in to testify against him I could bring him in."

"I'll see what I can do." John stood up from his seat, leaving Gianna behind. He made his way to the corner where they found Qui'in earlier.

"Hello, Shepard. Is what I've asked of you done?"

"Yes it's done."

"Here is your garage pass, thank you for helping me."

"Wait! I have one more thing to ask of you Qui'in. Could you perhaps testify against Anoleis to bring him to justice?"

"I don't know, Shepard…" He paused for a moment. "Since you have helped me I guess I would be able to."

"Good, thank you Qui'in."

John went over to the bar to gather Nihlus. "Nihlus time to go."

Nihlus stood up from his seat and walked with John to the bar to gather Wrex.

Empty bottles of alcohol were all around Wrex. "Wrex…"

Wrex turned around and stood from his seat slightly wobbly. "Shepard! Are we off to our next fight then?"

"We have the garage pass, I think I'll let you two rest…and maybe sober up some."

They made their way back to Normandy, Wrex's weight slightly tipped on John's shoulder to keep him steady. Entering the Normandy Nihlus and Wrex made their way to the mess hall, to get something to eat and maybe sleep some.

John walked up to the cockpit to see Joker. "Joker, I need a new squad for the mission up to Peak 15. Call to Kaidan Alenko and….Liara let them know to have their weapons and armor ready."

"Aye, aye. Shepard."

Within a few minutes, both of them were on the bridge, reporting for duty. They'd already been briefed about the mission. All they needed now was to get to the Garage and using that garage pass it wouldn't be hard.

They stepped outside of the Normandy, feeling to cold weather seep into their bones. Liara shivered slightly and moved closer to John.

Kaidan looked over at them confused shook his head and kept walking. Within a few minutes they were already to the Garage.

A lone guard stood at the door, to prevent anyone without a pass to get in. "Access to the Garage is restricted."

John handed over his Garage pass. "I have authorization, if you don't delay us any further we could be on our way."

"Yes, that's genuine. Drive safely the weather is supposed to be bad pretty bad out in the Aleutsk Valley."

John walked into the Garage with his squad. He heard a small robotic chattering noise that he knew too well.

He looked sideways to the source of the sound. Then sounds of crates breaking were intercepted by his audio receptors.

"There's Ge-"

He looked back to the front of him. A Geth destroyer was charging at him, its rocket launcher in hand. John tried to move out of the way, but was backhanded with a metal hand, sending him flying backwards into a crate.

"Shepard!" Both of them called out.

"Focus on the Geth!"

Luckily his helmet blocked most of the hit, but it hurt like hell when he landed on the crate. Still in a lying position, he drew his pistol and shot in the general direction of the Geth.

He called Liara on this mission to evaluate her fighting ability; she was doing pretty well, for a scientist.

John gritted his teeth together and pulled himself to his feet and caught up with Kaidan and Liara, both fighting the destroyer that had hit him.

He covered them, while they rattled the Geth's shields with every shot. Geth troopers surrounded them, John was thinking, how did the Noveria guards not hear the fire fight going on in the Garage they wanted to protect so badly?

John jumped behind a road barrier quickly, sliding his back down the concrete. Peaking over cover and firing a few blind shots, he picked up a large crate with his biotics and slammed it down on the Troopers.

He then got a wild idea looking back at the Geth Destroyer, Liara and Kaidan were fighting. The destroyer shot a rocket off in John's direction, just what he wanted.

John used his biotics to stop the oncoming rocket, and threw it at the Geth troopers. It exploded just as planned; the Geth's machinery and white blood went flying everywhere.

With the Geth troopers finished, he directed his attention to the Destroyer. Time to get payback; he rolled from cover while Kaidan and Liara tried to take the Destroyer down.

Kaidan looked over towards John from cover, John waved his hand in a circle, telling him that he'd flank around.

Kaidan gave a brisk nod and went back to firing at the Destroyer. John hid behind the crates, squatting low between the gaps, trying not to draw the attention of the Destroyer.

The Noveria guards chose this moment to come out of the door, and gasped as they saw the Destroyer. John was now directly behind the Destroyer. He got another idea, which could work.

He ran at the Destroyer's back, drawing his knife as he went, and leaped onto the Destroyer's back. The Destroyer was trying to reach back and grab him, but couldn't manage it.

John plunged his knife in the Destroyer's circuitry, cutting it. He then pushed his pistol in the back of the Destroyer's head and fired. The Destroyer fell to his knees.

"Bosh'tet!" John said as he kicked it face down.

"I guess that was what was in the crate's Matriarch Benezia brought." Kaidan said.

"What were those things? Comb out and fan the area. No one gets in, no one gets out!" The Asian guard said.

John had no time to deal with the petty guards of Noveria, he waved his hand and his squad formed on him. At the end of the walkway there was the Mako. Perfect.

They climbed into the Mako, John driving, and Kaidan at the weapons. They drove out into a White wasteland, snow flying everywhere.

* * *

><p>John jumped out of the Mako, feeling the soft snow through his suit. The others followed him down.<p>

"I guess this is Peak 15." John said, indicating to the door in the wall of snow.

"Isn't much is it?" Kaidan added.

"It's probably a larger complex inside, Kaidan." Liara said.

"Oh…yeah of course." Kaidan bent his head a little in embarrassment.

John moved towards the door. "Well, let's get going, it's not like Matriarch Benezia is going to come out and greet us."

"Right, Shepard. Lead the way." Kaidan said from behind him.

They walked inside of the facility and into a storage room. John and his squad took cover behind some crates; they heard the loud thuds of footsteps and some talking. The sound of the voices were Krogan and the large footsteps sounded something immensely large was walking towards them.

They had the element of surprise at least. John waved over to his left, Kaidan moved to where he was waving squatting with his back against the cover. John waved to his right; Liara took a position on his right.

The voices were getting closer; John took a deep breath, grabbing his pistol from his belt. He moved to closer to the side of cover and poked his head out. Two Krogans and a Geth Juggernaut, he quickly cursed and pulled his head back in.

The Krogans were both carrying shotguns; they were still a good distance away if they focused their fire on the Juggernaut, maybe they could take it down before the Krogans were in range.

John glanced at Kaidan and to Liara, he nodded to them, they nodded back. John gave the signal to open fire on the Juggernaut.

John moved his upper body out of cover and opened fire on the Juggernaut. The Krogans jumped for cover at the sound of the first gunshot.

The combined forces of their weapons against the Juggernaut were overwhelming its shields. John knew once the shields fell, the Juggernaut was easy pickings.

The shields of the Juggernaut were wavering against the gunfire, but it was now returning fire. Plasma from the Juggernaut's weapon whizzed past their heads as a loud crack rang out around the room.

The Juggernaut's shields had broken; the bullets from their weapons were now hitting the Juggernaut's metal and penetrating into its circuitry.

Sparks were flying out of the holes made in its armor; it fell to the ground with a thud, crushing a nearby crate.

It was now the Krogans turn. John used his biotics to pick up the cover the Krogans had been hiding behind.

Seeing that their only had been lifted made a foolish charge towards John and his squad.

"Rrrrrahhh!" The Krogans shouted as they charged.

John shot 6 shots at the kneecaps of the Krogan on his left, 2 for the Krogan's shields and 2 for each knee. The Krogan fell, its momentum making him slide across the floor.

The second Krogan was already down, Liara and Kaidan had unloaded on it. A puddle of blood surrounded the dead Krogan.

John walked to the downed Krogan, writhing in pain. Blood was forming under his legs from being shot clean through.

John squatted down next to the Krogan and took the shotgun from beside the Krogan. He examined the shotgun for a second, a Katana Shotgun, made by Ariake Technologies.

"Hmm…I think I'll keep this." John shoved the barrel of the shotgun in the wide open mouth of the Krogan and fired, scattering his head all over the floor.

"Mmm…Fires quite nice. A few mods to improve performance…." John trailed of for a second.

"Okay back to the mission." He stood up from his squatting position. John put the shotgun on the small of his back.

John then walked up the stairs leading to a door, with a set of turrets in the opposite direction.

"It seems they want to keep people in as much as they want to keep them out." Liara said.

They reached an elevator eventually, which lead them up to a courtyard like place. They stepped out of the elevator and onto the fresh snow on the ground. Chattering of Geth could be heard from the other side of the wall.

A Geth shock trooper walked around the corner, John quickly threw a grenade from his belt knocking the Geth upside the head before exploding.

He grabbed his shotgun on his back and turned the corner. 5 Geth Troopers were standing in the middle, with a combat roll he went into a cover Liara and Kaidan right behind him. He grabbed another grenade from his belt, and he threw it in the middle of the Geth with a well-placed throw.

It exploded, sending the Geth backwards landing in the soft snow.

John, Kaidan and Liara regrouped in the middle and scanned the area for any Geth left.

A roar unlike John had ever heard reached their ears. "What was that?" He asked.

"I don't know…Animals? Wind? This place is in bad shape." Kaidan said.

With that 3 small insects charged at John and his squad. John stomped on one, but it exploded with a green light under his foot, shards of the insect tearing through his suit and cutting his skin.

"Damn…Bosh'tet!" He said as he recovered from the explosion. They quickly shot the 2 other ones before they could explode.

Two giant insect like creatures came out of a door towards them.

They unloaded on the two things, rattling their tough skin was bullets. They all sighed in relief when both of them finally fell to the ground.

"What were those things?" Liara asked, slightly shaken.

Kaidan moved over to the giant thing and poked it with the barrel of his gun."I don't know…they were pretty tough, though."

John had a good idea of what they were, but it couldn't be right. They were supposed to be killed off by the Krogans. "Let's keep moving, we have a mission to do."

They walked up the steps leading to another elevator, which they got in like the last one. The elevator came to a halt at what looked like a maintenance area of the station.

There was scratching against metal and a roar like the last one. The small bug-like animals popped out of the way and scuttled across the ground, disappearing inside another wall.

"A backup power generator, if we turned this on we could be able to restore some power back to the facility." John pressed down on the button in the wall to his left.

A female voice came rang out inside the room. "Critical startup error. Virtual intelligence user interfaces offline. Manual start up required."

He rounded around the large core, there was a small elevator leading into the depths of it where he could start it.

"Wait here." John stepped onto the platform; it slowly took him down into the core. He quickly worked on it. It was a very basic concept; even a Quarian child could do it. He finished up quickly and took the platform back up.

"I see you're trying to get the facility running again. Would you like some help?"

"Yes, we'd like some help.

* * *

><p>The powerful Matriarch Benezia stood before them, observing the Rachni Queen from above.<p>

"You don't know the privilege of being a mother." she spoke without turning. "There is power in creation. To shape a life; to turn it toward happiness or despair." Benezia turned her head slightly, to stare at the intruders. "Her children were to be ours, to rise to hunt and slay Saren's enemies."

John approached her cautiously. Liara and Kaidan drew their weapons, ready for a fight.

"Matriarch Benezia!" John shouted up at her. "We have no intention to harm you. We have evidence you've been working with Saren. If you come quietly no one will get hurt."

She spoke blankly again. "Have you faced an Asari commando unit before?" She asked John. "I doubt few Quarians have."

John glared at her for a moment. "I've faced worse than your little Commando unit."

He drew his pistol and started moving towards Benezia. She immediately hit him with a Stasis, stopping him in his tracks. Multiple Asari moved from behind Benezia, towards John's squad.

John visor-planted into the ground as he fell out of Benezia's stasis, he then crawled over to cover and started barking orders.

"Kaidan! Liara! Cover me, I'm going for Benezia!"

He rushed out of cover, enjoying the feeling of the moment, him being in a dangerous situation with hardly any cover.

He quickly grabbed his knife in his free hand and charged towards Benezia. He took down an Asari Commando with his pistol as he rushed by.

Benezia saw what he was doing and flung John backwards into the wall with her biotics. He hit the wall, rattling all the bones in his body, he fell to the ground landing on his left arm; he heard a snap and pain seared through his arm.

He was bleeding from his left shoulder too, he discovered. He apparently stabbed himself when he fell, he shook his head in shame and sheathed his knife and stood up, his left arm hanging limp from his side.

He charged back up onto the platform, there weren't as many Commandos, Kaidan and Liara seemed to be working their job to perfection.

He kicked an oncoming Commando in the face, sending her flying back a few feet. John finished her off with a few shots to the face.

John turned his attention to the Geth troopers which were flanking on two sides. A few rockets soared in John's direction he had barely enough time to dodge the missile and escape the explosion.

When John and his squad finished the first wave off, the Matriarch waved her hands and a fresh, new wave came out behind the doors.

John cursed as they came in shooting, John, Liara and Kaidan focused their fire on the new arrivals. Within minutes they were down.

More Geth approached, but were shot down quickly. A few more Asari moved in after the last Geth soldier fell, but were quickly gunned down as they were trying to find cover.

Eventually the shooting stopped and all that was left was the loud pants of the Matriarch. John moved in and aimed his pistol at her. Liara and Kaidan moved up the steps and followed suit, aiming at the slightly slouched Matriarch.

She glared at them as they surrounded her. "This is not...over." She managed through her pants. "Saren is…un…stoppable. My mind is….filled with his glorious…light. Everything is…now..clear." Benezia turned and stared at the Rachni Queen.

"Well, guessing that all of your troops have fallen and you're surrounded, I guess it is over." John stated mockingly.

She turned around instantly and faced them "Saren still whispers in my mind." She was out of her normal voice. "I can fight his compulsions briefly, but the indoctrination is strong."

"Saren is controlling you? He has indoctrinated you? How are you resisting him?" asked John.

A pained look spread across her face. "I set…a part…of my mind away from…indoctrination. Saving it….for a moment I…I could help destroy…him."

"So you'd be able to kill us when we understand you?" asked Shepard, he gripped his pistol tighter.

"Yes. But it would… not be of m-my will Sh-Shepard. People are…different…around Saren. You come…to idolize him. To w-worship him. You'd do anything…for him. The…The key is Sovereign…his flag..ship. It's a…dreadnought of…of incredible size…it's extraordinary."

"Who made the ship?" John's mind racing with all these answers.

"I-I do not know. The Geth didn't build…it. It's…technology is more advanced than…any known species. The longer you stay aboard the more Saren's will seems correct. You sit at his feet and smile as his words…flood you. At first…I thought I was strong enough to resist...instead I became a willing tool to serve Saren."

She stepped closer to John, his grip tightening around his pistol. "It's a terror to be trapped in your own mind…to beat upon the glass as your hands torture and murder. I-I was powerless, nothing but a tool for Saren…He sent me here to find the Mu relay. Its position was lost thousands of years ago."

"Someone on Noveria knows were the Mu Relay is? How'd you discover they knew?"

Benezia nodded briskly. "Two thousand years Rachni inhabited this region of our galaxy. They discovered the Mu relay. The Rachni can share memories across generations. Queens inherit knowledge from their mothers." She glanced over to the Rachni Queen. "I took the location of the relay from the queen. I was not gentle." Sadness overtook the Matriarch for a minute.

"You can redeem yourself, Matriarch. Give me the location of the relay."

Benezia nodded slowly and gave him an OSD. John took it carefully from the grip of the Matriarch and handed it to Liara, who stored it away for further analysis back on the ship.

She shook her side to side. "Saren would not tell me his destination. But you must find out quickly. I transmitted the coordinates to Saren just before you arrived. You have to stop him! Stop me!" Benezia grabbed her head with force and moaned "His teeth are at my ear! His fingers at my spine!" Benezia screamed in pain. "You should you should…"

She rose from the ground, her pain and suffering no longer showing in her figure.

"Die!" She said no hint of her former self there.

John forced his knee in her the stomach and shot her where it wouldn't kill her. He non-lethally took her down, she cried out in pain as she hit the ground.

The last remaining commandos were taken out by Kaidan and Liara, John gave them a nod of approval and the Matriarch transformed back into her weak self.

"I cannot go on…you have to stop him Shepard."

She was being over-dramatic. She was going to be able to live. "No, you're going to be fine…a little medi-gel-"

"No. He's still in my mind. I am not entirely myself. I never will be again." She said sadly.

John understood, he laid her down softly on the metal ground. She gave a short moan as the wounds inflicted on her started to bring her closer to death. Shepard held her hand as she was dying, she tightened her grip softly.

She looked up at the ceiling. "Where is the light?" she said softly, sadness in her voice. They said there would be a..light." Her hand fell limply from John's hand.

"Keelah se'lai he muttered softly as he moved her fingers down her face, to close her eyelids.

John looked at the grotesque figure of the Rachni Queen in her cage. She looked absolutely disgusting, but if it weren't for the queen, he would never be able to find the Mu Relay.

"This one will serve as our voice." A voice said from behind John.

He turned to see a dead commando, standing up, talking to them.

After a few minutes of the Rachni Queen talking about 'Melodys and music being clear now' John had to make a choice, to let the Queen live or die.

He felt bad for the creature, seeing past its ugly and grotesque features. He told the Rachni Queen straight. "If you ever try to cause a war with us, I will hunt you down myself and mount your head in my Captain's Cabin." He hit the release button.


	18. Rest and Recovery

The Illusive Man sat quietly lost in his thoughts, His penetrating stare fixed at the dying sun. His hand sat heavily on his glass of alcohol; occasionally he brought the glass to his lips to take a sip.

A man emerged from a door in the back of the room and made his way towards the Illusive Man. "Sir?" He asked cautiously.

"Yes?" The Illusive Man replied in his patient voice.

"We've acquired the location of the Quarian, John'Shepard. He has been quite discreet with his location since… the incident." The man adjusted his glasses. "He is on the small, frozen terrestrial world of Noveria, barely habitable."

The Illusive Man turned his chair around to face the man. A bead of sweat went down the side of the other Man's face.

The Illusive Man's deadly patient voice echoed throughout the room. "The Quarian isn't our biggest problem at the moment, But he has proven himself quite troublesome, keep a close eye on him and with all the money we've invested in controlling him; I'd like to have him back."

* * *

><p>John was riding in the back of the Mako with the adrenaline of the fight gone his arm throbbed softly from his painful fall. His shoulder stopped bleeding, but no doubt picked up some infection.<p>

Stabbed… stabbed with his own knife. Shameful.

The ride went by pretty quietly and smooth, except for the occasional swerve to dodge obstructions.

After finally pushing passed some insignificant guards, they made it back to the Normandy. John took in the elegance of the Normandy once again, his eyes sliding over the sleek design of the ship.

He was still surprised he was serving on a ship like this. His eyes rolled over the ship once more and walked with Liara and Kaidan into the Normandy, after the decontamination procedure they were allowed to enter the Normandy.

The bridge was basically empty, a few people were lingering and talking as they finished up work on their computers.

Liara turned to John "Shepard, You hurt yourself in the fight I think you should go to Dr. Chakwas."

"I know how to handle myself." John realized he was coming on too hard at her. "But thank you for the suggestion, Liara." She nodded and went off to her station.

He nodded to Kaidan; he got the message and walked off to put his gear up.

John disdainfully took Liara's advice and thought it was best to go see Dr.Chakwas about his wounds.

"Ah, Shepard." Chakwas said as she wheeled her chair over to see him. "What seems to be the problem?"

John sat down on one of the medical beds. " During a fight I fell awkwardly on my arm and I believe it to be broken." John tried to evade any other questions.

She nodded at him "Hold out your arm."

He did as she said. "Where does it hurt at?"

He pointed to the place on his arm. She gingerly pressed in the areas where he indicated it hurt.

"Looks like it's broken, but doesn't look too bad. Maybe an hour or two in here and you can go on with your business."

John silently nodded.

"What about your shoulder?"

"I can take care of it myself." John said bluntly.

"No I insist." Before he could stop her she tore the bandage off, showing the wound. She applied some antibiotics and medicine to the wound, put medigel on top of it all to hold it in place. "Shepard, it's best not to let these wounds sit open. With you being a Quarian, it can really affect your health."

"Thank you, Dr. Chakwas but please save me the lecture, I know what the consequences are. I've been dealing with them my entire life."

She smiled and ushered him over to lie on a cot and put his arm in a machine beside it. "Just relax. The machine will do all of the work."

He nodded and sat back, finally a chance for him to rest. The machine felt like it was massaging his arm, slightly hurting but feeling good at the same time.

His moment of tranquility only lasted for a few minutes, before someone said his name.

"John." Someone said.

Recognizing the voice, he slowly opened his eyes and sat up. Standing before him was Tali, she was slightly fidgeting. "I brought you something…"

She gave him a paste tube from the Mess Hall. "I heard you were injured and I figured you were hungry… so I got you a paste tube from the mess hall…"

She gave him the Paste tube and pulled up a seat beside him. He observed her actions, his eyebrow raised. "Tali, the injury isn't serious enough to pull you away from your work."

"I know but… I finished all of my work and I wanted to see if you were okay."

"Thank you, Tali. It means a lot to me, I'd probably do the same if you were lying here."

There was an awkward silence for a moment before she spoke again. "Do you need help… with that?"

"No it's-"

Before he could finish the sentence Tali took the tube from his hand and clipped it under his mask. She pushed his hand back down onto the cot. "It's okay… I've got it, John."

John gave into her, into hunger and didn't fight back. There were too many people that were 'helping' him today. He can handle things himself…

She slowly rolled the tube up, allowing him to eat the tasteless paste.

She rolled it up to the top, unclipped it from his helmet and put it in a nearby trash can. "Better now?" she asked sweetly.

He nodded, his stomach stopped aching in hunger. "Things like this reminds me of when we were on the Flotilla. How we were always with one another, helping each other out. "

"But everything is different now… Rogue Spectres… the Normandy, it's crew and even you have changed. It's kind of… like I don't know you anymore, you've changed so much."

He could agree, he's changed a lot. It's not his fault that life has thrown everything at him in the past years. "I know I've changed Tali, it's something I've learned to do. Either you change… or you break and I chose to change."

"I'm also glad you've changed in some ways. You've become a great leader and Captain. You've also changed your physical… appearance." She moved her hand to his chest, feeling his muscles through the suit.

She felt his chest for a second more and pulled her hand back, realizing what she was doing. "Sorry!.. I have to go... Do some work for Adams." She said embarrassed

She walked quickly out of the room, leaving John lying on the cot dumbfounded. Dr. Chakwas was chuckling over at her desk.

"Looks like you have an admirer, Shepard. "

John cursed himself, this couldn't go on. He had to focus on the mission… not some girl that 'admired him'. "When will this thing be done?" He asked impatiently.

"Shepard, it doesn't work in 5 seconds. Give it some time." Chakwas's tone was always quite motherly towards the crew.

John sighed in frustration and closed his eyes. 'I guess it would be best to get some sleep.'

He leaned back and shut his eyes. A dreamless sleep fell over him, for the first time in a long time.

* * *

><p>John woke up from his peaceful sleep, his arm was out of the machine and he was still lying on the cot. He pulled himself up off of the cot, sleepily John then stretched his body for a moment. He looked down at his left arm, which he'd injured. He flexed it, Chakwas really did mean it when she'd say it'd be good as new.<p>

He walked out of the bay and almost immediately Garrus walked up beside him.

"How's the arm?"

"Feels like it's brand new."

"Sleep well too?" His mandibles spread into a Turian smile.

"Actually, yes I did, Vakarian. Why all the questions?"

"No reason… So how are things with Tali? Are you going to make your move?"

"I don't have time for your questions, if you'll excuse me I have to send reports to the Council and clean my weapons."

"Why don't you let me clean your weapons. I need something to do anyway." Garrus offered.

"Thanks for the offer, Vakarian, but I don't trust anyone but myself to clean my weapons. In fact I don't trust anyone enough to touch my weapons at all."

With that John stepped inside of his private quarters and locked the door behind him… it was not really considered his quarters, considering he never slept or stayed there.

He moved to the desktop computer next to his bed and sat down at it. Wondering how he was going to do this, he had learned how to write basic letters back on the Flotilla but never anything as much as a report, considering Cerberus took him when he was 16.

In his previous missions he never really had to send lengthy reports, but considering what they've just done, it needed to be lengthy.

'Hmm… should my name on the report either be Captain John'Shepard nar Rayya or should it be Shepard…' He was battling over this in his head when someone knocked on the door.

He moved back towards the door, slightly frustrated at the break of concentration.

John opened the door and to his surprise saw Liara standing there. "I wanted to see how you healed up."

"It healed nicely, I'm just writing this report to the Council, I don't know what to say other than we've freed Rachni Queen, killed a Matriarch and received some coordinates to some place we don't know still exists."

"I could help you with that report." Liara said as she invited herself in.

After a couple of minutes Liara had typed up a full report of the mission, even though she was there for only half of the mission.

"Yeah… that looks about right." John squinted his eyes at the monitor, leaning softly on the seat Liara was sitting in. "Thanks for the help, Liara."

"It was nothing, Shepard. I'll leave you to review the report and change what's necessary." With that she exited his quarters.

Tali, sitting at the table looking at her omni-tool heard the hiss of the doors of the Captain's Private Quarters open and Liara comes out.

She walked quickly passed Tali, giving her a slight nod as she went to the medical bay to access her quarters.

'John was in there too… sending a report. Why would Liara be in there… could something be going on between them?' She asked herself. 'No… **my **John wouldn't involve himself with other species.' She told herself.

After a couple of minutes of arguing inside of her head she walked over towards Garrus, leaned against a wall talking to Kaidan.

She beckoned him over and whispered into his ear. "I need you to keep an eye on Shepard and Liara for me… I think there is something going on between them."

"I'm sure, Shepard doesn't like anyone enough for that. Maybe she was helping him send the report or something. She does research Prothean ruins and is probably good at sending reports."

She silently cursed her stupidity, why didn't she think of that first?

"And if Shepard did trust someone enough to have a… "relationship" it would be you." Garrus continued.

Tali's heart bounced inside of her chest. "You… you really mean that?"

"Yeah… you are a Quarian and so is he right… and it looks like you two knew each other before this mission. I just think he's trying to hide his feelings, but he'll come around sooner or later."

Tali fiddled with her fingers. "I hope you're right, Garrus." She walked off bouncing excitedly on her heels at what Garrus said.

Garrus chuckled as he watched her bounce off. He officially considered himself Shepard's wingman.

* * *

><p>John was lying up the bed in "his" private quarters wondering why he'd ever give this bed up to Tali. It was way more comfortable than the pods they slept in, or the cots in the medical bay.<p>

Something dawned on him as he was lying with his arms behind his head. After this mission he couldn't go back to the Flotilla, nor could Tali.

They have to find something of value to bring back to them and even though John never technically got the chance to go on his Pilgrimage he was ready to be a crew member on a Quarian ship and finally have "Vas" in his name.

But he wasn't sure that he would go back and serve on the Flotilla… when Cerberus took him they never sent anyone to get him… no marine squads, nothing.

But he was never really important at the time, just another mouth to feed. Now, John is probably the most important Quarian in the galaxy, even if none of his deeds surfaced to the rest of the galaxy.

**A/N: A nice quick chapter, showing some things going on inside the Normandy.**


	19. Pre-Virmire

**Since we're nearing the end of the first Mass Effect, I'm trying to plan out the scene between Tali and Shepard before the final mission. If you have any suggestions or requests, just stick them in the reviews, I'll be glad to try to get them in. This chapter will be short, the next one will be longer.**

* * *

><p>They once again defeated the odds, destroying the the Thorian and it's Creepers. John had to admit, the Thorian was one of the most disgusting and interesting creatures that he'd ever met. Once again he had shown mercy, to an Asari, Shiala.<p>

She was with Saren, but was offered as a sacrifice to the Thorian. Shiala requested to stay with the colonists, to help them.

They'd received word from the council to head to Virmire, they received word from a Salarian Reconnaissance Team that they have information on Saren. The message was very unclear and the Council believes them to be in danger.

Just great, more on their plate. Word from Joker was that they would be arriving on Virmire in a couple of hours.

John moved down into the Cargo Bay, he moved over to the table and started disassembling his pistol. Wrex was leaned against the crates and Garrus was sitting on a couple of boxes.

"Ready for the mission, Shepard?" Garrus asked from across the room.

"Of course he is, Turian." Wrex grunted. "If it weren't for the Salarians getting themselves into this mess we'd never be on this mission."

"We have to ready for anything that comes up, Wrex." John said.

"I know that but the Salarians have always been using other species to get them out of their messes." Wrex spat, referring to the Rachni Wars.

"We'll be there in a couple of hours, save your anger for the fight." John replied .

Wrex grunted and moved away from them.

Garrus moved over to him and watched him playing with the pistol for a while. "So I had a talk with Tali. Before the last mission."

Garrus took John's silence as means to continue. "She likes you, Shepard. Hell, maybe she even loves you."

"Why are you telling me this, Vakarian?"

"But the real question is, do you like her back…"

"Vakarian, this isn't a school yard and we're not children gossiping around who likes each other. We're on a mission, I'll let you know, nothing will get in the way of me completing this mission."

"So…you don't?" Garrus tested John.

John reassembled his pistol very quickly and pointed it at Garrus. "This conversation is over." He put his weapon in his belt and walked off. 

* * *

><p>After fighting through many Bases and Geth, they finally made it to the Salarian camp. John drove the Mako onto the shore and parked it.<p>

Opening the hatch, Ashley and Tali jumped out followed by John.

Ashley made her way over to a Salarian that Kaidan was speaking with. The Salarian eyed John as he walked up.

They glared at each other for a second and the Salarian broke the silence. "I'm Captain Kirrahe." he introduced himself. "Third Infiltration Regiment STG. You and your crew just landed in the middle of a hot zone, Quarian. Every AA gun within ten miles has been alerted to your presence."

"I'm Shepard, I presume you are in charge. What are your plans of action?"

Captain Kirrahe chuckled for a second. "Plans of action? Saren's whole base of operations is over there." Kirrahe waved behind him. "It's crawling with Geth and Krogan. We're staying put until the Council's reinforcements get here."

"We are the reinforcements." Ashley said.

He jumped a little with shock, the tiredness being recognized on his face. "What? I told the Council to send a Fleet."

"I see." John paced around Kirrahe taking in what Kirrahe had told them. "I'll be taking over this Operation, we'll be meeting for plans of actions at sundown. By morning we will have a plan to take this facility from Saren."

"One more thing you should know, Shepard. Saren is using the facility to breed Krogans."

Wrex must have overheard Kirrahe, because that was when he chose to enter the conversation. "What? How is that possible?"

"Apparently Saren has discovered a cure for the genophage." answered the Captain. "We must ensure that this facility and its secrets are destroyed. "

"Destroyed?" Wrex questioned. "I don't think so. Our people are dying. This cure can save them."

Kirrahe exchanged glances between John and Wrex. He chose his words carefully "If that cure leaves this planet, the Krogan will be can't make that same mistake again."

Wrex approached the Salarian with heavy steps and pushed the him back. "We are not a mistake!" The Captain only looked at him. He spat and moved away from the group, mumbling curses under his breath.

Captain Kirrahe looked over at Wrex with annoyance. "Is he going to be a problem? We already have enough angry Krogan to deal with."

"I'll handle him." John said quietly.

He told Williams and Alenko to wait and he alone approached Wrex.

Wrex shot at the water in front of him. Seeing John from the corner of his eye, he started talking. "This isn't right Shepard," Wrex began, "If there's a cure for the genophage, we can't destroy it!"

"Wrex, I know your upset," he reasoned, "But you shouldn't be angry at us. Be angry at Saren."

"Really? Saren created a cure for my people. You want to destroy it." he pointed out, waving his hand in the air and turning around. He then turned around and glared at John. "Help me out here, Shepard." He took a few steps towards him. "The lines between friend and foe are getting a little blurry from where I stand." Wrex raised his shotgun at John.

"Wrex, I've had enough of your temper. Learn to control yourself." John raised his hand and backhanded Wrex across his face, using his biotics to add a little more power.

"S- Sorry..Shepard. I needed that… but when we get to Saren I want his head." Wrex angrily stormed off.

John walked back towards the tents. Garrus was sitting down on the sand looking at John amused. "You better be glad Tali didn't see that, she would've had Wrex's head."

John ignored him and walked further off down the beach.

* * *

><p>"So we need an extra person, preferably one of your crew, to help in the assault." explained Kirrahe.<p>

"So, you want me to leave one of my own under your command?" John questioned.

"That is correct." nodded Kirrahe. "I need one of your men to accompany me... to help coordinate the teams."

"He's right Commander," Alenko jumped in, "We can't do this without both teams at their best. I volunteer."

"Not so fast L.T.," This time it was Williams, "Commander Shepard will need you to help arm the nuke. I'll go with the Salarians." Ashley volunteered

"With all due respect it's not your place to decide." Kaidan snapped.

"Why is it that whenever someone says 'with all due respect' they really mean 'kiss my ass'?" Ashley shot back.

While they argued, John ran the possibilities and scenarios through his head. "Nihlus… Nihlus will go with the Salarians. A Spectre should be able to give you more than an advantage against the Geth."

Nihlus nodded at John and stepped towards the Salarians.

They dispersed, going in separate directions, Kirrahe and John went into a large tent together to discuss a battle plan. ** LINE **

After an hour of formulating a plan in the tent, they finally exited to get some rest. Upon exit John saw Tali sitting next to the water, dipping her boots in the water.

He walked over to her and sat down next to her. "Why aren't you resting?" he questioned.

She shrugged. "I don't know… I'm not really tired… I guess I'm kind of nervous about tomorrow."

He put his boots in the water next to her, feeling the water swirl against the thin layer of his boots. "There's nothing to be worried about, nothing we can't handle." He put his arm around her.

She moved slightly against him and leaned her head on his chest. John reached into a pouch pulling out a small chip.

"Tali, we found this information on the Geth when going through this part of the galaxy, I think it will make for a perfect pilgrimage gift."

She looked at it stunned for a second and took it from him and placed carefully in a pouch. "Thank you John… Thank you very much…"

John abruptly stood up and said. "I have to get some sleep before the mission Tali. I'd advise you to do the same…" with that he wandered off into a tent leaving Tali alone by the water.


End file.
